Phase Shift
by Zeralul
Summary: Three gamers are shoved into the FTL world with nothing but their gamer instinct to guide them. Rated M for strong language.
1. Chapter 1

**The data you carry is vital to the remaining Federation fleet. You'll need supplies for the journey, so make sure to explore each sector before moving on to the next. But get to the exit before the pursuing Rebel fleet can catch up!**

"Hey, this isn't KSP!"

Felix looked at the holographic message in confusion. This message was projected by some futuristic wristband into the air in front of him. One moment, he was starting up Kerbal Space Program on his PC from the comfort of his home. Next thing he knew, he was in this strange control room. A screen that glowed blue with a control board at the bottom dominated the left half of the room. A comfortable-looking command chair was in front of the screen. The entire room was a stark white.

He walked up to the bright screen to get a better look. It seemed to be an overhead view of a small white ship with orange stripes. The top of the ship was cut off to provide a view of each room. At the head of ship, he saw someone who looked very familiar. Felix stuck out his right arm and waved it about. So did the figure on the screen. He realized that it was himself.

He also saw two other people on the ship. The woman was in a room with missiles, and the man was in a room with what seemed to be the engine.

"Hey!"

His voice was automatically magnified as it blasted through the intercom of the ship. The other two grasped their ears in pain.

"Not so loud!" the woman named Meredith replied equally as loudly through the intercom.

This time Felix flinched in pain.

"Sorry. Didn't know that would happen," he said. "Do either of you know what this is?"

"Looks like some type of spaceship," the man named Chase spoke up.

"Let's meet up in one of the rooms and talk this out. This is crazy," Meredith said.

As each of them approached the orange doors to the other rooms, they opened up automatically to let them pass and closed after they went through. Felix passed by another control room and what seemed to be a medical room before he met the other two in a common room. They were all clothed in some sort of spaceship crew uniform.

"Hey guys, my name is Felix."

"I'm Meredith."

"And I'm Chase."

"Nice to meet you all. Does anybody know what's going on?"

"No idea. Are we in space?" Chase asked.

The dull hum of the engine was all they could hear. There didn't seem to be any windows on the ship, but they had all looked at their control panels and saw the view of the ship.

"I think so… which would be pretty cool if we had some idea of how we got here," Meredith said.

"Did you guys get this message?"

Felix pulled up the holographic message again from his wristband.

"Yeah. I'd like to know what this 'pursuing Rebel fleet' is. Are we in danger?" Chase asked, a hint of fear showing on his face.

"I don't know, man… this is all so freakin' weird!"

Meredith suddenly gasped.

"What's up?"

She scrambled out of the room and back into her room with the missiles. Her eyes rapidly scanned the details on the screen.

Hull status display. Missile count. Artemis. Burst Laser II. Weapons. Top-down view of the entire ship.

Meredith's stomach dropped. She went back to Chase and Felix.

"This is FTL!" she shouted.

"What? FTL? You mean that Steam game?" Chase asked.

"Yeah, I'm like, 99.9% sure. The visual they have on the screen is almost exactly like the one…"

"Wait, isn't that game supposed to be super hard?" Felix interjected.

"It is… I've only beaten it once, and it was on Easy difficulty."

"Hah, I've beaten Mass Effect on Insanity difficulty without dying. It can't be nearly as hard," Chase said.

"It's hard. It's a roguelike."

"Meaning?"

"Basically, you die a lot. No save points, no nothing."

"Okay, so like a no-death run-through of Mass Effect."

"Yeah, but this might not be a game! What if this is some freaky thing where if you die in the game, you die in real life?"

"Then don't die."

"I don't see how you can be some calm about this!"

"Well, there's really no point in panicking. If we want to do well, we have to stay calm. So what's the objective of the game? How do we win?"

Meredith took a deep breath and began her explanation.

"We have to pilot this ship through eight different sectors, with a final boss in the eighth. There'll be a lot of combat and dangerous situations on the way. I hate to say it, but it's pretty likely that some or all of us will die."

"Why don't we just stay here then?" Felix asked.

"The Rebel fleet is chasing us. Although, in the game they don't pursue you if you just idle at one of the beacons… mmm, but we can't win the game by staying here. We'll die of starvation or something."

"Good point. Is there any food or water on this ship?"

Meredith shrugged.

"That should be our first order of business."

The three of the scattered about the ship, looking for food and water. They turned up empty-handed.

"Okay, so it looks like we have no choice but to win the game," Meredith declared.

"The only winning move is not to play," Felix muttered under his breath.

"Why don't you tell us everything you know about the game, Meredith? We don't know crap about it," Chase said.

Meredith explained to them the basic mechanics of the game. The explanation was spotty and her facts were given somewhat randomly.

"Look, I'll explain things more as they come up," she said, exasperated.

"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence," Chase replied.

"Hmmm… maybe…"

Meredith put her finger on a long horizontal button on her wristband. Suddenly, everything seemed to be frozen in place.

"I didn't expect that to work! This is great!" she thought.

"What's great? Why can't I move?" said Chase's voice in her head

"In real life, pressing spacebar pauses the game. Gives you more time to strategize. I guess this button on our wristbands does the same thing."

It appeared that they could communicate mentally would paused.

"Okay, sounds great, but how can we unpause if we can't move?" Felix asked.

On the word "unpause," things started to move again.

"That answers that question…"

"Next, we should assign stations. The major three are piloting, engines, and weapons," Meredith explained.

"I think I can handle piloting. I've played a lot of Kerbal Space Program," Felix mentioned.

"Maybe there was a reason why we started in the rooms we did."

"Wait, that means I'm the engines guy? That doesn't sound like fun," Chase complained.

"Managing the weapons can get complicated, and since I have the most FTL experience, I'll control them."

"Fine. You're the boss."

Each of them went to their assigned stations. Felix looked again at his control board. There was no joystick or steering wheel or anything like that. He wondered if he was supposed to fly this ship with only a few random buttons. On the screen was a full display of the ship, hull, shields, supplies, crew health bars, etc. Nothing about steering though.

The only buttons that were lit up on his control board were JUMP, SHIP, and GENERATE. The other ones were grey and already pressed in. As he saw Chase fiddling with the engine room control panel, the engines roared to life, shaking the whole ship a little. Felix could now see small flames spitting from the thrusters of the ship.

"I figured it out, guys. I'm good on this end," Chase said over the intercom.

Out of sheer curiosity, Felix hit the GENERATE button. Two little ten-sided dice appeared on the bottom right side of the screen. The EVADE text on the screen glowed green with the number "15%" next to it.

Next, he pressed the SHIP. A menu popped up on the screen with three tabs: UPGRADES, CREW, and EQUIPMENT. He quickly went through all three.

On the UPGRADES tab, it appeared that the ship already had some upgrade to each of its systems and its reactor. The CREW tab showed the three of them and their names. The EQUIPMENT tab displayed an Artemis missile launcher and a Burst Laser II gun, but no drones, cargo, or augmentations.

Meredith had told them to spend some time to memorize the placement of each of the rooms. Special rooms included the O2, engines, weapons, shields, medbay, doors, sensors, and piloting rooms. For a few minutes, Felix repeated the names of the rooms and looked at the overview of the ship. There were little symbols for each room that helped signify the function of the room.

Last but not least was the JUMP button.

"I'm hitting the JUMP button now. Brace for impact!"

Felix pressed the button down and expected to hurtle through space faster than light. However, all that happened was that a map popped up on the screen titled "Beacon Map." 

**Sector 1: Civilian Sector**

"Meredith, what is this?"

A few moments passed before Meredith joined Felix in the piloting room.

"This is the beacon map. These little yellow diamonds on the map represent FTL beacons that we can jump to. FTL means faster-than-light, if you didn't know already."

"Oh, I knew. It would be helpful for Kerbal missions. Flying to Pluto takes forever."

Meredith chuckled.

"So, if I remember correctly, the best strategy was to hit as many beacons as you could before you got to the exit beacon right there. The exit beacon is the only way to jump to the next sector."

She pointed at small yellow diamond on the other side of the map. A little green box labeled "EXIT" pointed at the diamond.

"The more encounters we face, the more supplies and scrap we'll get."

"Scrap… is for upgrading our ship and buying stuff?" Felix said, unsure.

"Yeah, good job."

Meredith spent some more time looking over Felix's screen.

"Wow, your display has everything on it. Mine only has things relevant to the weapons system," she said.

"Do you want to switch? Maybe you'd be better at the helm."

"Believe it or not, weapons are equally as important."

Felix looked again at his screen. Everything was foreign to him.

"I hope I can figure all of this out and not get killed."

"Me too."

"Me three!" Chase's voice said over the intercom.

"Oh, I forgot that what we say is automatically broadcasted through the entire ship. lol." she said without hesitation.

"...Did you just say 'lol'?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just cute."

Meredith laughed.

"Okay, Chase, get over here. Let's talk strategy."

They looked at all the possible paths through sector one to get to the exit beacon and settled on the one that they thought was the best. After deciding, the three of them returned to their respective stations.

"All right, lady and gentleman, ready for liftoff?"

"I'm pretty sure that's not the word for it, dude."

"Hey, I'm the pilot here, I can call it whatever."

"Doesn't make it right."

"Just do the damn jump already," Meredith butted in.

"Okay, here we go! T-minus five, four, three, two, one…!"

He selected the next beacon and the ship disappeared into the blackness of space.


	2. Chapter 2

**A Rebel ship hails you: "Federation scum! We've waited a long time for this!"**

A target window with the enemy ship was displayed on each of their screens. It was mostly orange with a couple of sky blue stripes.

 _Class: Rebel Rigger_

 _Relationship: Hostile_

The ship's hull life, shield status, and system statuses were displayed on the bottom of the target window.

"We going to fight?" Chase shouted.

"No, there's a pause before each event… which is good because I want to explain the situation," Meredith said. "As soon as we begin, they're going to attack us."

"You mean unpause? Oh shit!" Chase yelled.

A loud mechanical sound reverberated from outside. Some kind of drone began to patrol around the ship. The enemy missile launcher on the enemy ship armed itself.

Meredith quickly hit the spacebar.

"Don't say that word, or that will happen! We need to strategize first. We have all the time in the world, so let's not rush headlong into things."

"Sorry."

"Okay, so the enemy has a missile launcher that can ignore our shields, so it's essential that we take out their weapons systems first. That'll be my job. It'll be up to you two to evade the missile when it's fired."

"I'm guessing that drone thing isn't ours?"

"Nope. It's an enemy beam drone. Its beam is too weak to pierce shields, so as long as our shields stay up, we'll be fine… unless the missile happens to hit our shield systems. So you guys better dodge well!"

"Yeah, about that…" Felix commented. "I actually have no idea how I'm supposed to pilot this thing to evade shots."

The JUMP button had been replaced by CHARGING. The SHIP button had been replaced by IN DANGER. The only button left pressable was GENERATE.

"All I can press is a button that says GENERATE. Should I try it out now?"

"Sure."

He hit the button, but nothing happened. He then remembered that they were paused.

"Maybe it'll do something when we go."

"Yeah, we can't tell right now. Chase, do you have the engines figured out?"

"It's uhh… it's a typing game."

"What?"

"I type the words that come up on the screen with this crappy-ass keyboard."

"Does that work?"

"No clue! But seriously, I think these keys are sticking together."

"Okay, so this isn't great, but we'll have to make do. Felix, do you have control of the reactor?"

Felix looked at his display but couldn't find the word "reactor" anywhere.

"What is that?"

"It should look like a pile of green bars to the left of your screen."

"Oh yeah, I see it."

"I need you to select Burst Laser II and Artemis for me. This will redirect excess power from the reactor to our weapons."

Felix pressed the weapons, and the green bars moved from the reactor stack into the empty weapon bars, filling them up.

"Also, make sure the engines are fully powered."

"It looks like there's one bar missing."

"Ah. Divert power from the medbay to the engines."

"What if we need to heal?"

"We can do that if that happens. For now, it's better to have fully-powered engines so we don't get hit."

Felix moved the power bar from the medbay to the engine system. Meredith targeted the enemy weapons system room with the Burst Laser II.

"Everyone ready?"

"I guess so."

"Let's go."

"All right. Unpause!"

The engine roared even louder that before. They could hear the enemy drone buzzing about, shooting beams that dissipated against their shields. Then they heard something being launched through a tube.

"That's a missile. Get ready to dodge!" Meredith commanded.

The GENERATE button started to shine with blue light. Felix slammed his hand down on it as the missile was about to impact their ship. He saw the two virtual dice roll on the screen. One came up "10" and the other "2."

MISS

They could feel themselves being pushed upwards as the ship dipped down. The missile almost skimmed the top of the ship, but it flew past them and continued on its merry way through space.

"Oh, thank god! Returning fire!"

A few seconds later, their Burst Laser II fired a volley of three lasers, making a very distinctive blaster sound. The enemy ship also moved to evade, but the first laser took down their shields, and the second laser scored a direct hit on their weapons system. The third laser missed as the enemy ship finally completed its downward maneuver.

The beam drone continued to work away at their shields. The sound was unnerving, even after knowing that the drone couldn't harm them.

"Their weapons system is down. They can't fire any more missiles until they repair it. Nothing to worry about," Meredith explained.

Although the enemy shields were back up, another volley broke through them easily and hit their shields system. The enemy shield system had turned orange from damage, but their weapons system had turned back from red to grey.

"Hey, their weapons are back online!"

Sure enough, the enemy missile launcher was charging up again.

"I'll try and take it out!"

Meredith fired again just as the enemy launched a missile. Once again, Felix hit the GENERATE button. He rolled a "50" and a "5."

Their ship tried to roll left to dodge the missile, but it was too slow. The missile sailed straight from above the ship down into the empty room next to their weapons room, near the back left end of their ship. It exploded in a fiery, ear-deafening fireball. Being in the front, Felix felt a only slight rattle from his chair, while Meredith and Chase were both thrown to the ground.

"Ouch! What the fuck, Felix?" Chase grunted.

Meredith grit her teeth and got back up just in time to see two of their lasers slam into the enemy weapons room again.

"Focusing their weapons room! No need to take out their shields if they can't fire back!" she shouted.

"Are you guys okay? That was pretty loud," Felix asked.

"I'm fine."

"Shut up, I'm trying to type here. Fireworks… insinuation…"

Meredith fired another volley, scoring yet another set of direct hits.

The game paused. A terrified voice rang out through their intercom:

 **Take everything we have! Just don't kill us.**

...followed by a message on their wristband holograms:

 **1\. Accept their offer. Fuel 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 9**

 **2\. We will not accept surrender!**

"They only have two hull points left. We should just destroy their ship. That way we get more scrap for upgrades. Nine scrap isn't much," Meredith stated.

"Whatever you say, boss," Chase agreed.

"Do you guys really want to kill them?" Felix asked.

"It's just a game, right? They're NPCs. They aren't real people."

"He really sounded scared though…"

"Felix, it's better them than us. They're scripted to say stuff like that. They're AI. We are real people. Don't worry about it," Meredith said, trying to assure Felix.

Truthfully, hearing an actual voice say the message rattled Meredith more than just a little bit. However, she didn't want to show any weakness.

"Okay, I'll trust you on this one."

With some hesitation, Felix pressed the second option, but nothing happened.

"It's not working."

He pressed it again. Nothing. This time he tried holding it down, and a little speaker icon appeared. As he let go, it vanished.

"Huh… maybe this…?"

He held it down again and paused for a moment.

Felix then said, "We accept your offer."

As soon as he let go, everything unpaused, and the message disappeared. The supplies they offered were automatically added to their storage.

Meredith felt relieved, but she knew she had to speak up to maintain her position.

"Why did you let them go? We missed out on a lot of scrap!"

"I don't know… it just doesn't feel right."

"Didn't they call us scum? They the ones to attack us first!" Chase argued.

"Look boys, we don't know anything about this war between the Rebels and the Federation. All I know is that the Rebels hate the Federation, so they will kill us without remorse. If we don't respond in kind, it'll severely cripple us moving forwards. So from now on, no more accepting surrender terms unless they're really favorable."

"Fine," Felix mumbled.

The enemy's disabled beam drone hovered uselessly beside the ship. They could see thousands of stars against the blackness of space. A large, blue planet loomed behind them. The three of them had stopped talking. Once again, only the sound of the engine thrumming could be heard. The enemy ship was floating idly in the target screen. No signs of movement.

 _Relationship: Neutral_

Meredith sighed.

"Everyone, let's meet in the common room again and chill out for a second."

As Felix left the piloting room, he could hear the engines shut off.

The common room was essentially a blank white cube of a room, except with three orange doors leading out of it. There were no furnishings and nothing on the walls and ceiling except for harsh white lights.

The three of them looked around at each other in silence. Chase finally sat down on the floor and sighed.

"Man, that shit was intense!" he said with a laugh. "It didn't really hit me until the missile hit us. Oh crap, speaking of which, is that room okay? Is there a hull breach?"

"Nope, if you look on the ship overview, the room is completely fine. The only difference now is that we sustained one point of hull damage. We start with a total of 30."

"What happens if we reach zero?"

"Well, we lose. The ship will explode."

"Really? Is there anything we can do to patch it up?"

"You can only do that at stores."

"Are those common?"

"I think there's at least one per sector. Anyways, enough chit-chat. Let's keep moving."

Felix and Chase reluctantly returned to their stations and Felix jumped them to their next destination.


	3. Chapter 3

**You stumble across a forward scout of the Rebel fleet. They are powering up their FTL! If they get away, they will no doubt warn the fleet of your position!**

 _Class: Rebel Disruptor_

 _Relationship: Hostile_

Another orange and blue Rebel ship presented itself to them. This time, the enemy ship had a drone that was floating around its own ship. The Rebel ship seemed to be equipped with a single giant laser gun.

"So, we gotta kill these guys before they can get away."

"How long will it take for them to charge their FTL?"

"I'm guessing around 30 seconds if we don't disrupt their engines or piloting," Meredith surmised. "They have that defense drone that will shoot down any missiles we shoot at them, but it looks like their gun only fires one shot at a time. It'll never get through to our hull. Piece of cake."

"What happens if they warn the Rebel fleet?"

"Nothing too serious. We'll basically have one less turn in this sector to explore."

"Didn't you say that it was important that we hit as many beacons in this sector as we can?"

"That's true, but I think we can blow these guys up no problem."

"Great…"

Felix leaned back in his chair. He closed his eyes and remembered the missile hitting their ship. That missile could have killed someone.

"Better them than us. Better them than us. Better them than us."

He rubbed his temples. They were shooting down a fleeing enemy, and they couldn't show any mercy.

"Okay. Let's get this over with. Unpause!"

The Rebel ship charged up and fired a huge laser bolt at them, but the shield blocked the shot and dissipated. Before they knew it, their shield had regenerated as if nothing had happened. Meredith fired a volley at the Rebel ship and struck the enemy engines once. The room's symbol turned orange, but not red.

"No good, their engines are still up; they can charge their FTL. I'll focus on their piloting instead."

The Rebel ship fired their one-shot gun as often as they could, but its reload time was longer than the shield's recharge time. The shield would always be up at this rate. The enemy ship's only hope was to FTL jump away.

Meredith's three-shot gun easily broke the enemy shields and slammed into their piloting room, turning it red.

ENEMY FTL DELAYED

She shot once again at the enemy engines. Though the Rebels had repaired it, once again it was damaged back into the orange.

"Felix! Look, I know that our shields are holding up, but could you maybe try not getting our ship hit?" Chase shouted over the intercom. "Seeing a giant laser flying at me is not very relaxing!"

"I'm trying! I'm getting unlucky!"

Felix had rolled a 44, 22, 100 and 63. The higher the roll, the worse the ship manuevered to dodge the shots. Was there a threshold at which the ship would successfully dodge? What if he didn't hit the GENERATE button?

On the next incoming shot, Felix did nothing. The bolt flew directly at him. Felix's gut reaction was to scream and jump to the ground. The shields stopped the shot in its track a few feet away from the piloting room.

"What was that? You okay, Felix?"

He definitely was not doing that again.

"This should do it!" Meredith cried out.

Her volley of three shots sailed into the enemy hull. Numerous small explosions erupted across the surface of the Rebel ship, followed by a series of huge explosions that were snuffed out by the lack of oxygen in space. Felix saw the ship snapping apart into several large pieces.

"Nice shots! Awesome!" Chase called out.

They had did it. It was their first time destroying an enemy ship and probably killing everyone inside.

 **Their ship breaks apart and you are relieved to know that you are still one step ahead of the fleet.**

 _Missiles 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 15_

The message was telling them that should feel relieved. Felix was anything but relieved after seeing such a violent explosion first-hand. Meredith was slightly shaken, but mostly excited from the adrenaline rush and the feeling of victory. Chase was downright ecstatic.

"Fuck those guys! We did it! Woooo!"

"Good work, everyone."

"Yeah. Hurray."

Chase detected Felix's sarcasm.

"Oh, come on… cheer up, man! We got more supplies AND we're still one motherfuckin' step ahead of the motherfuckin' Rebel fleet!"

Felix decided that he would have to steel himself for the journey ahead. He had to become an emotionless, stone-cold killer like the other two. Chase was clearly enjoying himself. Meredith was calm and collected. was he? Definitely not living up to his name, at least.

"True. Yeah, good job everyone."

The three of them met in the medbay this time. A large white machine with a huge red cross painted on the top of it dominated one-fourth of the room. They had no idea how it worked.

"This is the medbay. Hopefully, we don't have to ever use this machine."

"It is super creepy in this ship without the engines on. Completely silent."

They stopped talking. All that could be heard was the sound of their breathing. They looked around at each other in awkward apprehension. The boys looked at Meredith and quickly averted their gazes. Felix broke the silence.

"Another blue planet, eh? It looks exactly the same as the one from the last beacon."

"Yeah, that's not outside the realm of possibility. This is a game, after all."

"Most realistic game I've been in."

"Let's get a move on. That battle was pretty fun," Chase declared.

The rest of them nodded and set up for the jump.

* * *

 **Upon completing your jump, you receive a message from a nearby ship. "Greetings and welcome to our beacon! For a small fee, we'll let you continue on your way."**

 **1\. Pay their toll.** _Scrap -23_

 **Reject their "offer".**

 _Class: Pirate Scout_

 _Relationship: Neutral_

The other ship lived up to its name. The voice that had come through to their speakers had an outrageously cheesy pirate accent.

"No way we're giving up 23 scrap to these clowns. Do you guys agree?" Chase asked.

"Yeah, that's way too much."

"What will happen if we reject them?"

"What do you think?"

"They'll attack us?"

"Exactly."

The pirate ship looked a lot like a giant purple and brown pill millipede. Two small laser guns could be seen on the front of their ship. They had a classic "skull and crossbones" pirate symbol painted on the top of their ship as well, but with one alteration: the skull was an octopus-type creature.

It was time to show no fear. Felix held down the second option.

"We reject your offer!" he shouted.

 **"Too bad… You will regret this decision!"**

"Unpause!"

Both of the ships fired at each other at the same time. The pirate ship actually had a one-shot and a two-shot laser guns.

The one-shot fired first, taking down their ship's shields, and the two lasers followed afterwards, scoring direct hits onto an empty room and the engine room. The impact launched Chase into a wall, knocking the wind out of him.

"Fuck! Agh!" he shouted.

"You okay, Chase?"

"No! And what the hell? There are… there are giant bolts popping out of the floor!"

Four oversized metal bolts had appeared, sticking out of the tile. They were shaking and rattling about, threatening to pop out. The engine was groaning. Chase looked around for something to screw them back in, and he spotted a large wrench on the wall. He grabbed it and started to tighten the bolts. As he tightened, the engine sputtered less and less.

In the meantime, only one of Meredith's lasers hit the enemy weapon system. However, it was enough to take the pirate's two-shot offline. Their one-shot pinged uselessly against the shield.

"How… did… you… not… dodge… any… shots, Felix?" Chase yelled between motions. "Crap, I think I'm bleeding!"

"Not my fault! 77, 78, 84!" Felix yelled back.

"What does that even mean!?"

Chase finally got the bolts back into ground. As each one was completely screwed in, it disappeared into the tile. The engine returned to full blast, and Chase jumped back onto his keyboard. He noticed that the computer had been slowly typing the words itself for him while he had been repairing the engine.

"Back to work. Intensity… insurrection…"

"Looks like the engines are back online. Good job, Chase."

"Don't thank me, you useless piece of shit. Dodge better!"

After another couple of successful volleys from Meredith, the beaten pirate ship sent a message:

 **"You have made your point, we are beaten. Take these and leave us to our shame."**

 **1\. Accept their offer.** _Fuel 3, Drone Part 1, Scrap 7_

 **2\. We will not accept surrender!"**

"Felix, don't you dare accept their offer again! Blow them to fuckin' chunks!" Chase roared.

If there was a time to be tough, now was the time. He was not a coward, and he couldn't show it. Felix held down option 2.

"We will not accept surrender!" he declared in the most vicious voice he could muster.

The pirate ship had no chance against their three-shot Burst Laser II. After six more lasers, the pirate ship was blown to pieces.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missiles 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 16_

"Bastards."

Chase rubbed the pain on his head, and in the process, covered his hand with blood.

"I think I need to use the medbay, guys. I'm going there now…"

Everything went black and Chase hit the floor hard.


	4. Chapter 4

Felix and Meredith ran to the engine room and saw Chase face-down on the floor. Blood was trickling down the side of his head.

"Shit."

Meredith rolled Chase over and shook him a bit.

"Chase. Chase. Can you hear me?"

No response.

She checked his pulse and felt it faintly.

"He's still alive. Let's get him to the medbay."

Meredith went to his legs and began to pick them up.

"Felix. Get his other side."

He nodded and managed to help her bring Chase to the medbay. Chase was a lot heavier than he expected. Felix redirected some power to the medbay and immediately a light green mist sprayed from the machine into the room. Chase's eyes fluttered open.

"Hmm? How'd I end up here?"

He stood up and looked at his hand, the blood helping him remember.

"You all right, man? For a moment there we thought you might have…"

"I'm fine. In fact… wow, it doesn't even hurt anymore."

Chase rubbed the place where his bleeding wound used to be. There was still some wet blood, but there was no pain.

"At least I've confirmed that this machine works! Ta da!" Chase announced.

"All part of your plan, right?"

"Yeah, totally. I'm not going to lie, though. That impact really hurt."

"Sorry about that. I can't really control what I roll," Felix said.

"You mind telling me about this 'rolling' you keep talking about?"

"Well, you know how your screen is a typing game, right? Mine is just a dice-rolling game. I think the lower I roll, the better the ship dodges.I rolled an 100 once and the ship barely dodged at all."

"Oh, I see… and there's no way to rig the rolls?"

"Not as far as I can tell."

"Can it roll the dice by itself? My machine seemed to type the words by itself, after all."

"Nope. The one time I didn't hit the button, a laser nearly hit me square in the face."

Chase nodded and rubbed his chin.

"Meredith, what's your screen like? Another game?"

"Yeah… the HUD looks exactly like FTL, but only including the stuff having to do with the weapons system. It's actually great for me this way."

They could see a background of stars spilled across the darkness of space with a prominent sun not too far away. A huge aura of light surrounded it, resembling a circle of mist.

"Hey, do you guys think we should name the ship?" Felix asked, breaking the momentary silence.

"Sure, why not?" Chase replied. "Any suggestions?"

The three of them thought for a minute.

"The default name for this ship is the Kestrel. There's some merit in just naming it that," Meredith stated.

"What's a kestrel?"

"Some kind of animal, I think."

"I was thinking we call it the Normandy," Chase suggested with a grin.

"You want to name it after a place?"

"No, it's the name of your main ship in Mass Effect!"

"We can't come up with something more original?" Felix complained.

"Actually, you can't change the official name of your ship after you've started the game. Let's just stick with the Kestrel," Meredith said.

"That's dumb. You should be able to change the name whenever you want. Also, where does it say on this ship that it's called the Kestrel? Is it painted on the outside of the ship?"

"It should say the ship name on the SHIP menu."

They went to the piloting room to check the SHIP menu, but only Felix and Chase were able to fit into the room. Felix hit the SHIP button. "The Kestrel" was displayed in its full glory on the top of the window.

"There it is. That's our name for the ship then!"

"You guys can call it the Kestrel if you want. I'm calling it the Normandy."

"Fine by me. It's not really that big of a deal."

"Exactly."

After settling on that, the Kestrel took off to the next beacon.

* * *

 **You recognize the ship as a well-known slave trader. He hails you and offers you "laborers" for cheap.**

 **1\. Buy one slave and free them to join your crew. Scrap -31: 'Giles'**

 **2\. Attack the slaver scum.**

 **3\. Ignore the slaver and continue on your way.**

 _Class: Pirate Rigger_

 _Relationship: Neutral_

"Slavers? Sounds evil enough for us to kill, right Felix?" Chase teased.

"Wait, but blowing them up would also kill everyone on board, including the slaves."

"Hey, those are just casualties of war. Besides, killing them now means no more people will be enslaved by them."

"I don't think thinking about this morally is the best course of action here," Meredith interrupted. "We have to think of this purely in game terms. What option would put us the farthest ahead?"

"Don't ask me, I never played this game."

Meredith cracked her knuckles.

"The worst would be option three. Taking it means that we wasted fuel jumping here and missed out on an opportunity for another beacon event. I think the second option is the best choice."

"Can we take them on?"

"They have two laser guns. We'll probably take some hits, but it'll cost us less than 31 scrap to repair the damage. Most likely."

"So buying the slave is a bad idea?"

"31 scrap is a steep price compared to the low price of free! Usually these slavers will offer one of their slaves for free if we bring their hull integrity low enough," she explained.

"It's decided then?"

"Yeah. Let's punish those slaver scum."

"Unpause!"

Two drones began to orbit the pirate ship: one defense drone and another unfamiliar drone. Felix hit the pause button.

"Meredith, what does that other drone do?"

"Hmm… let's see. Felix, can you hover over it?"

Felix looked on his screen. The drone was mostly light grey, but it had a bright sky blue light shining in the center. Hovering over it displayed this message:

 _Enemy Anti-Combat Drone: Shoots to stun and possibly destroy your combat drones. Can be shut down by damaging the enemy ship's drone system._

Felix read this description out loud to the rest of the crew.

"That's useless for them because we aren't using any combat drones."

"So we can't deploy our drone parts then?"

"We can only use drone parts after getting a drone schematic and a drone control system."

"Sounds like something we don't have."

"Yeah, it can be hard to get the parts, but being able to use drones is really useful. They can shoot down enemy missiles, attack the enemy ship, generate shields for us, and other stuff."

"It's a shame we can't take their drone system and install it on our ship."

"Anyways… let's get this over with. Unpause!"

The enemy shot first. The first laser broke their shield and the other one destroyed the doors subsystem. This time, the laser impact was closer to Felix and he could feel the ship shake. The Kestrel returned fire and connected with two shots to the enemy weapons system. After another one of Meredith's vollies, their shield system was taken down as well.

"Hey, does this mean we can't use the doors?" Chase yelled as he typed "elaborate" and "defenestration."

"No, it just means we can't lock the doors or open them remotely!"

Fortunately, the enemy ship couldn't repair fast enough to get their weapons online. After another volley against the useless pirate ship, things paused and they sent a message:

 **We surrender! Take one of our slaves as tribute; if you destroy us they'll all die anyway!**

 **1\. Accept their offer.** _Magmar_

 **2\. Surrender is not an option.**

Next to Magmar was a sprite of what seemed to be some sort of mantis.

"Magmar definitely isn't a human. And he definitely looks more like a Scyther than a Magmar," Felix said.

"Will it speak English? What if it speaks some sort of weird alien language?" Chase asked.

"I honestly have no idea. He'll be part of our crew though, so I'm assuming there'll be some way to communicate with him."

"That's hopeful. What if it kills us all?"

"The game has been exactly like FTL so far. He's not going to be hostile. I'm not expecting it to deviate from the game."

"What if we agree and then the pirate ship starts firing on us again when we least expect it? I think it's safer just to blow them all up. That way we'll get more scrap, right, Meredith?"

"That's true, but getting another crew member is essential for us right now. We need someone manning the shields system as soon as possible."

"What does having someone man the shields do? Does it make them stronger?"

"No, it decreases the recharge time of the shields. We don't want to keep taking hits to our hull while our shields are still recharging. You felt it yourself, Chase."

Chase felt himself raising his hand to rub his head, but he caught himself.

"Fine. Do you want to tell us more about mantises?"

"It's pretty simple. They move fast, excel at combat, and suck at repairing. Just like what you'd expect a real-life mantis to be."

"How does a tiny little insect excel at combat?"

"Mantises are almost as tall as you are, even on its six legs."

Chase recoiled at the thought of a giant killer mantis scuttling around the ship.

"I… don't know if this is safe."

"Don't worry, if something goes wrong, we can just use these blasters in our holsters," Felix pointed out.

Chase looked down and, for the first time, noticed he was wearing a holster with a gun in it.

"Where the hell did this come from?"

"I don't know. It just appeared when we started talking about combat."

"That's fuckin' weird. Makes it clear that we're in a video game."

"Yeah, but it's strange how we see the ship with our eyes as if it were real. On the screen, the ship is displayed with crappy game graphics."

"How did we get into this game in the first place? That's what I'm wondering."

"We can think about this later. We still need to decide whether we're going to take Magmar or not," Meredith said.

"You said that it was better that we take him. You haven't been wrong yet, so I'm going with your decision," Felix stated.

"Fine, I'll go along with you two. But I'm not happy about it."

"We accept your offer," Felix said while holding down option one.

Almost instantly, things unpaused and Felix saw something huge and green materialize from the corner of his eye. He looked at the larger-than-life mantis, and it looked back at him with its bulbous eyes and small pupils.

It screamed like a chalkboard banshee and raised its forelegs menacingly, darting towards Felix faster than he could have ever expected.


	5. Chapter 5

The mantis grabbed Felix's head between both pincers, digging into his soft skin, and it opened its gaping jaw. A drip of acid from its maw hit the floor, sizzling.

"Guys! HELP!"

Felix reached for his gun in a panic, but it was too late. The mantis brought its mouth down, completely engulfing his head. He let out a terrifying cry.

But death didn't come.

The mantis remained still for a moment and then gently removed his mouth from around Felix's head. He cocked his head and blinked a couple of times.

"Who are you?" he asked in a high-pitched, gritty voice.

The mantis's eyes grew wider. He looked at his pincers, and then down at his body. He was heavily scarred and there was some sort of dried green liquid on him.

"What happened to me?" the mantis screamed.

At that moment, the door to the piloting room opened and Chase and Meredith stood there, staring at the mantis. They had guns in their hands, but their arms remained limp by their sides. The mantis saw the newcomers and raised its forelegs to the sky.

"Please don't shoot me!"

In response, Meredith and Chase raised their blasters at the mantis.

"He was trying to kill me just before! He had my head in his mouth!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" the mantis responded.

"Give me one good reason why we shouldn't jettison you out the airlock," Chase shouted, his voice cracking a bit.

"I don't mean any harm. I just appeared here and his head was in my mouth. I don't know how I got into this body."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm human, I swear. I was just sitting down and, well… killing people in Runescape, and then suddenly I was here in this monster body!"

The three crewmembers looked at each other.

"An enemy NPC couldn't come up with lines like that and know about Runescape," Meredith stated.

"And he easily could have killed Felix if he wanted to, but he stopped, right?"

"Actually, I'm a girl," she said in her mantis-voice.

A smile spread on Chase's face.

"Sorry, I didn't exactly do very well in my mantis biology class," he jested.

"Also, does your real name happen to be Magmar?"

"What, like the Pokemon? No. It's Margaret. Wait… where are we right now?"

"You are currently on the Normandy SR-3, the coolest spaceship in the galaxy," Chase declared.

"Actually, the ship is named the Kestrel. Don't listen to him," Felix said while facepalming.

"We're in space?"

Margaret attempted to sit down and take things in, but she couldn't find a comfortable position in her mantis body.

"I can't believe I'm asking this, but what year is this?"

"We have no idea. It was 2015 for me when we were thrown into this game. Same for you two?" Meredith asked.

Felix and Chase nodded.

"This is a game?" Margaret asked.

"Yeah, it's exactly like FTL."

"What's that?" she asked again.

"It stands for Faster Than Light. It's a space game."

"How did you guys get here?" she asked again.

"No idea. We were playing video games before we teleported here."

"Did you guys know each other in real life?" she asked again.

"You've gotten to ask us lots of questions, Margaret. I have some questions for you," Meredith said.

"Okay."

"You said you were playing Runescape right before you ended up here. What were you doing?"

"I was PKing. Oh, that means player-killing," she said when she saw confusion on their faces.

"Have you played any other space games before?"

"The only one I can think of is Space Invaders. Does that count?"

Meredith looked blankly at her.

"Why did she end up in a mantis body?" Chase asked.

"I don't know, but it's really freaky. I could really hurt someone with these!" Margaret exclaimed as she fiddled with them.

She accidently cut her own forearm a tad with her claw.

"Ouch! Really sharp!"

"Margaret, how old are you and where are you from? Oh, and while we're at it, I ask the same questions to you two," Meredith said, gesturing to Felix and Chase.

"Are you okay?" Chase asked, ignoring Meredith and looking at Margaret's cut.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It just stings a little."

"We have a medbay onboard if you want to get it patched up."

"No, that's okay. Thanks though!"

Meredith began to tap her foot.

"Oh, right. I'm Margaret. I'm 15, and I'm from Seward, Nebraska."

"I'm Felix. I'm 19, and I'm from San Francisco, California."

"The name's Chase. I'm 17, and what is this?"

Felix rolled his eyes.

"But seriously, I'm from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, Earth."

"And my name is Meredith. I'm 23, and I'm from New York."

"So we're all 'Murican! And from a wide variety of places as well!" Chase pointed out.

"If this isn't a coincidence, that means that if we get any more crewmembers, they'll be from the US," Margaret surmised. "West coast, east coast, midwest… that means our next member will be from the south."

"A southern belle, huh?" Chase supposed joyfully. "Oh... but he might be a guy too,"

"It looks like Margaret doesn't play space games like we do," Felix mentioned.

"Good point. I had a theory that all of us would come from a space game background, but you're living proof that we won't," Meredith explained.

"It's nice to meet you all, by the way! Sorry for the whole head-eating thing."

"No problem. You really scared me there. I thought I was going to get eaten!"

"I'm sorry. I'll try my best to help you guys out. So, are we in space?"

"Yeah. Meredith can explain to you what's going on."

Meredith told Margaret about FTL, about their mission, and about the general mechanics of the game.

"A real-life space bar? In space!" Margaret said with glee.

"Yeah. So your job will be to man the shields system. Let me take you there."

All four of them went to the shields room. Just like the other systems rooms, there was a screen and a control panel. In the center of the control panel were two fake bongos.

"Really? Those look almost like the bongos for Donkey Konga," Chase said.

"I assume that you hit them repeatedly to recharge the shields. Can you do it?" Meredith asked, looking up and down at Margaret's sharp claws.

"I'll be careful."

Margaret crawled to the bongos and began lightly tapping them with the sides of her forelegs. With each impact, a blip appeared in the center of the screen, in the middle of an empty circle.

"I'm not sure if you're supposed to hit them to a beat or just bash away as fast as you can. We'll only know once we get into another battle."

"Oh gosh, a battle? Are we ready for one?"

"We've been in a couple already. We just finished one to save you from a slave ship," Chase said matter-of-factly.

"Thank you for that!"

"Let's not mention the fact that if we hadn't taken the mantis onboard, Margaret would still be on Earth, playing her game," Meredith brought up.

Margaret's mantis face noticeably dimmed, somehow. So did Chase's.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to depress any of you," Meredith said, surprised that her silly comment had affected them that much.

"It's okay, Meredith."

"Let's just do our best to win this game, all right?" said Felix.

All of them nodded their heads in agreement.

"Anyways, I need one of you to to help me fix up the doors subsystem," Meredith stated. "Actually, let's all get a chance to fix the room. Chase and I will go first, since there's only room for two."

Chase and Meredith entered the doors room to find giant bolts jutting out of the floor.

"Just take a wrench off the wall there and start screwing them in," Chase explained. "They disappear if you screw them in all the way, so stop halfway and let the other two try it out."

Meredith nodded and began twisting the bolts in. After they were all screwed halfway in, they left the room and told Felix and Margaret to go in. Upon entering, they found that the bolts had popped back as if Meredith and Chase had done nothing.

"Did you guys get a chance to screw in the bolts?" Felix asked.

"Yeah, we did them halfway."

"It looks like they're about to pop out. Are you sure?"

Meredith opened the door to the doors room and saw the bolts that were untouched.

"Oh. Huh."

"What's up, Meredith?"

"In the game, if no one kept repairing a broken system, all the repair progress done would be lost. I guess the same thing is happening here. So, you have to keep screwing in the bolts and not stop, or else they'll immediately pop back out. Why don't you two finish the repair, then?"

Felix and Margaret finished screwing the bolts in and they disappeared into the tiles.

"There we go. Let's go to our stations and prepare to jump to the next beacon," Meredith commanded.

They all returned to their respective stations and Felix launched them to the next beacon.

* * *

 **The distress beacon is coming from a civilian ship. It appears it is being chased by a pirate.**

 **1\. Aid the civilian ship.**

 **2\. Stay out of it."**

 _Class: Pirate Scout_

 _Relationship: Neutral_

The pirate ship looked like a giant pincer. On one side of the pincer was a large laser gun, and on the other was a thick rectangular cannon. Purple streaks were slathered onto the ship's original red paint.

"The choice is obvious here," Chase stated.

"Yeah, let's save those civilians. Meredith?"

"Blowing up pirates means more scrap. Sounds good."

"Are we going to be okay?" Margaret asked, sounding a little intimidated.

"Yeah, as long as you can recharge our shields for us," Felix replied.

"Okay, let's fight these raggers!" she responded with gusto.

Felix pressed option one and declared, "Unpause!"

"You power up your weapons and engage the pirate ship."

The enemy fired first: a giant green laser shot. Felix rolled a 9 and the ship gracefully rolled to the left, causing the shot to fly by harmlessly. Meredith returned fire, but only one shot out of three connected, and it was blocked by the enemy shield. She scoffed.

Another shot came at the Kestrel. Margaret saw the laser bolt coming at them on her screen and at the same time saw a green circle dropping down from the top of her screen towards the empty circle in the center. She hit both drums just as the green circle hit the center of the empty one, and the word "GREAT!" popped up.

The shields soaked up the laser bolt. Immediately afterwards, Margaret saw the word "DRUM!" appear on her screen. She beat the drums as fast as she could without accidently piercing them. The blue progress bar at the top left of the screen quickly filled up as she smacked away. When it was filled, the blue shield once again enveloped the Kestrel.

Felix saw a blue and grey box appear in the enemy ship's cannon. He readied his hand over the GENERATE button, but it didn't shoot out at the Kestrel. Instead, it disappeared and he saw it reappear, floating next to their ship.

"What the fuck?" he sputtered out.

He panicked and brought his hand down on the button. He rolled a 16 and the box exploded in a ball of blue electricity.

"MISS"

Felix paused the game.

"Meredith, what the hell was that?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Sorry. That's a bomb weapon. It teleports bomb directly onto and sometimes into our ship," she replied calmly.

"That's hella scary. You should tell us about their weapons before we fight."

"My mistake. It won't happen again."

"Okay… unpause!"

Meredith's next volley were all hits, taking out the pirates' weapons completely. She continued to alternate between the enemy's weapons, shields, and piloting systems as they came back online. The pirates were easily rendered useless and were summarily destroyed.

 **The pirate ship breaks apart. You hasten to contact the civilian ship.**

 _Fuel 1, Missiles 1, Scrap 14_

 **This sector has become increasingly dangerous for friends of the Federation. I think my crew can patch up some of your hull damage as thanks.**

 _4 hull points repaired_

"Wow, this is really good!" Meredith exclaimed. "Now our ship is back to full health, and we have enough scrap to upgrade our engines."

"Did those people die?" Margaret asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. But you have to remember that they're just AI in a video game," Felix explained.

"What? You don't feel any kind of remorse, Felix? Even if they aren't real, it still makes me feel sad to kill people!" Chase said with dramatic flair.

Felix snorted.

"Are you serious? You're the one who's been all like, 'Kill them! Take their stuff! Yeah!'"

"Naw, that ain't me," Chase snickered, barely able to stay serious.

"Is the loot they dropped any good? That's what actually matters," Margaret interjected loudly.

"Yes, it's decent," Meredith responded.

Felix and Chase stopped talking, not expecting such straightforwardness from their newest crewmember.

"Great. Video games are about killing people and then taking their stuff when you win. I was just curious about how you guys felt about it," Margaret stated.

"Oh, stone-cold. I like it," Chase declared, grinning wide.

"I guess that's what we'll need if we want to survive," Felix said, somewhat downtrodden.

Margaret smacked the drums twice more.

"Okay! On to our next target!" she roared with her gritty alien voice.

Felix sighed and his FTL jump took them to their next destination.


	6. Chapter 6

**You come across a large trade station. However, as soon as you approach a warning goes out to all ships in the region: "Do not associate with the Federation sympathizer. All who oppose the Rebels will be punished."**

 **1\. Search among the stores to see if someone will sell to you.**

 **2\. Leave.**

"Remember guys, the more encounters we have, the better. If we can get someone to sell stuff to us, that'd be great," Meredith said.

"What do they mean about punishing us though?" Margaret asked.

"They'll send a ship to attack us."

"Bring them on!" Chase growled.

"Yeah, so far all the battles have been a piece of cake. Everyone ready?"

Everyone assented. Felix held down option one.

 **You apparently spoke to the wrong person in your search for a store. Warnings go off and you detect an automated Rebel ship moving in to attack.**

 _Class: Auto-Scout_

 _Relationship: Hostile_

"Meredith, weapons?"

"Hmm… it looks like all they have is a missile launcher. It's up to you to dodge it, Felix. Otherwise, they have no shields. After I take out their weapons, they'll be sitting ducks."

"Affirmative. Unpause!"

The Rebel ship immediately sprouted a small laser gun as well.

"They have a weak laser gun. It can't get through our shields unless the missile takes it out," Meredith stated.

"Got it. I remember."

The automated Rebel ship and the Kestrel fired their weapons at the same time. The projectiles flew past each other through space and the Kestrel's shield easily blocked the laser beam. The enemy missile, however, was another story.

It managed to impact the center of the Kestrel's weapons room, sending Meredith reeling and damaging the weapons system. Something in the room ignited in an explosion, and fire began to spread across the floor, threatening to engulf the entire room. She screamed in agony and frantically pressed the spacebar.

"Woah, Meredith! You still alive?" Chase shouted through the intercom.

"Yeah, I'm just… ugh… in the middle of fire. It was burning me. The air in here is burning my lungs! God, that missile fucking hurt!"

"Don't worry, Meredith! I'm coming to help!" Felix yelled. "What do you need me to do?"

"Felix... I need you to stay and pilot the ship. It's the most important. Ugh… Chase and Margaret. I need you two to come with the fire extinguishers and help me put out this fire. Then we repair the weapons system."

The two of them spotted the fire extinguishers on the walls in front of them.

"Get in here ASAP. I can't do this myself."

"Those two don't need to monitor their systems?" Felix questioned.

"I took out the enemy weapons system, so it's fine. They can't keep shooting immediately. Chase and Margaret, ready?"

"You got it."

"Okay. Unpause!"

Margaret and Chase arrived at the weapons room and burst in, fire extinguishers figuratively blazing. However, regret instantly filled their minds. They could feel the searing heat of the flames burning their skin and singing their hair. A horrible unidentifiable burning smell pervaded the room. They saw Meredith standing in the corner, desperately blasting away at the converging flames.

"Spray! Spray!" Meredith commanded.

The heat was almost unbearable. Chase wanted to turn heel, but he told himself that the right thing to do was to save the girl. However, Margaret had finally gotten a handle on how to use the fire extinguisher with her forelegs and was recklessly spraying everywhere in the room, seemingly unfazed by the fire.

With three people working together, they were able to quell the flames.

"Okay, now the floor!" Meredith said, pointing down at the mini-forest of bolts that had appeared.

They all got on their knees and fixed as fast as they could.

"Status of their weapons, Felix?"

"Their weapons are still down, guys. Nothing yet," he responded.

The three of them finished fixing the weapons system without any interruptions. Meredith got up and said, "Okay, you two. Return to your stations and we'll finish this fight."

Chase looked at Meredith and tried his hardest to suppress a laugh.

"What's the matter?" she asked, obviously suspicious.

"Your… your hair was a little damaged by the fire. Nothing major."

She scowled.

"Well, I could care less! Now move! We're in a battle here, and we're not paused!" she shouted.

They snapped back to their stations. Meredith shook her head and felt something wrong about the left side. She attempted to feel her hair there, but her hand met nothing but thin air above her shoulder where her hair usually was. Her hand continued upwards, and eventually she felt her hair. Almost a foot of her hair had burned off, her remaining hair left right above her ears.

The rest of the Kestrel's crew heard a blood-curdling bellow.

"These assholes will pay for fucking with my hair!"

The bellow was followed by volley of lasers from Meredith and a loud *TUNG.* Felix felt the right side of the ship rumble and saw that Meredith had fired the Artemis missile for the first time. The sleek grey missile flew relaxedly at the Rebel ship, much slower than the laser bolts. However, while the laser bolts lightly stung the enemy ship, the Artemis missile simply sunk through their hull and into their piloting system. After a brief moment, the missile exploded, and the Rebel ship exploded thereafter.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 3, Missiles 1, Scrap 1_

"Gosh, Meredith, you messed them up pretty good!" Margaret shouted with glee.

"Yeah, that missile launcher is really powerful. Why don't we use it more often?" Felix asked.

"Because it's for emergencies. Missiles are limited, after all," Meredith responded in her usual cool voice.

"This was an emergency? It seems like the automated ships can't repair their systems at all. They had no weapons."

"This time, it was for payback."

"For what?" Felix asked.

Chase made a choking sound, followed by some oddly conspicuous coughs.

"Nothing. Anyways, it looks like everyone but Felix needs to report to the medbay and heal their injuries, judging by your health bars. I'm pretty badly burned up myself. Ooo, this stings…"

With their adrenaline wearing off, the three of them began to feel the pain from their numerous burns. They limped their way to the medbay and Felix diverted power to it to provide them with some relief. The charred areas of their skin slowly turned normal again, and all of their singed hair grew back. Meredith sighed with relief. Felix didn't get a chance to see her without her hair at least.

"Ah, this feels much better," Margaret said with a calm sigh.

"This medbay is a life-saver!" Chase declared.

"That's its job," Meredith stated. "Don't let the fact that we have a medbay lead you to make stupid decisions. It's for emergencies only."

"Like if the enemies are hair-destroyers?" he quipped.

She glared at him with intense fury. He put his hands up in the air.

"It was a joke! A joke!"

"Not. Funny."

"Luckily, I don't have to worry about losing hair because I don't… have any!" Margaret stuttered and began to sob.

At least, she tried to sob, but her mantis eyes wouldn't produce any tears.

"Why did I have to become a giant insect, of all things? Why couldn't I be human like you guys?" she wailed.

"There, there, Margaret. You…you still look beautiful to me!" Chase claimed, trying to smile.

"Liar! I'm a goshdarned bug!"

She shielded her eyes with her forearms. Meredith looked at her sadly and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Margaret. It was just bad luck," Meredith explained. "The Kestrel's starting crew is three humans. Any crew members we pick up on the way will be of a random race. We just happened to get a Mantis, and you just happened to be selected to inhabit its body."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Believe it or not, you're the most valuable member of our crew. Humans aren't bad at combat, but Mantises are spectacular at it. If enemies ever teleport on board, you'll be able to kill them no problem. Plus, you move faster than us, so you can assist us all over the ship without skipping a beat."

"Is all of that true?" Margaret asked with a sniffle.

"It definitely is. If we want to make it through this, we need specialists like you to keep us safe."

"Okay. I'll do my best, then."

"And listen," Chase began. "Although your body might be Mantis, you have a human spirit. You'll always be one of us."

"Thanks, Chase. Thanks, you guys."

Felix sat back in his chair, listening to the whole conversation. They seemed to be getting along well. He wondered how well the crew would cope if one of the members died. On one hand, getting to know the other crew members meant better communication and teamwork. But on the other hand, a death would really cripple them. There wasn't any time for mourning. Maybe if they were a good enough team though, no one would die. He decided that he would work for it.

"All right team, ready to move on? Let's kick some ass," Felix said with spirit.

"First thing's first, we should upgrade our engines. I'll come to the piloting room," Meredith responded.

Felix pressed the SHIP button.

"So, right now we have 83 scrap. Is that enough for an upgrade?" Felix questioned.

"Yeah, it'll cost us 15 scrap to upgrade the engines and 20 scrap to upgrade the reactor."

"Why don't we just upgrade the engines twice?"

"You have to remember that upgrading a system isn't enough. If we don't have enough power from the reactor to fuel the new system, then the upgrade is pointless. Every system upgrade we do has to be paired with a reactor upgrade. We don't have enough scrap to upgrade the reactor twice as well."

"Okay… should we just upgrade the engines and reactor once?" Felix asked.

"Yeah, go for it."

Felix selected the appropriate upgrades and directed the new power from the reactor into the upgraded engines. He saw the EVADE number jump from 20% to 25%. The engine roared even louder than before.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about!" Chase yelled. "Finally, these keys on my keyboard aren't sticking anymore!"

"5% better chance to evade. That's not much," Felix mentioned.

"It adds up, trust me. Every percent of evade we get will be vital," Meredith pointed out.

"Okay, that's good. Are we done?"

Meredith felt a small twinge of sadness. From what he said, Felix seemed eager to get rid of her. However, the look in his eye was that of determination rather than annoyance. She must have read him wrong, obviously.

"Yeah, we're done. Let's move," she replied as matter-of-factly as possible, leaving the room.

Felix hit the JUMP button after everyone was in position.

* * *

 **The only other ship at this beacon messages you: "Finally, after months of waiting, someone has fallen into our trap!**

 _Class: Pirate Investigator_

 _Relationship: Hostile_

It was another millipede pirate ship.

"They have an ion gun and a laser gun. The ion gun won't do physical damage, but will disable whatever system it hits for a while. If it hits our shield, then our shields system will be disabled instead," Meredith explained.

"All right, thanks for the heads up. Let's do this," Felix said.

"One more thing. Felix, I need you to be ready to put in and remove power from our shields."

"What? Why?" he responded, exasperated.

"You'll see… it's a little tricky to explain."

"We have all the time in the world when we're paused. Just explain what you want to do."

"You don't trust me?"

"I do, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right?"

"Just explain it already!" Chase shouted.

"Okay, okay. The trick is we power down the shields when the ion ball is about to hit our shields. It'll either hit a random system or an empty room. Then we immediately recharge our shields to block the laser."

"What's the point? Seems overly complicated."

"Look, if the ion blast hits our shields, then our shields will be disabled and we'll be defenseless while its down. Their laser gun will get free hits in! But, if the ion blast disables any other system on our ship, we don't have to worry about it. Like I said, the ion blast won't actually deal physical damage to that system, and our shields will still be up to block their lasers."

"Okay…" Chase said, obviously confused.

"Let me try and simplify this: they can only deal damage to us with their laser. Their laser can only hit us when our shields are down. Their ion beam will take down our shields if it hits our shield. That's bad. If we power down our shield, it won't hit our shield. That's good. Got it?"

"Yeah, I think so..." Felix replied.

"I trust you, Meredith. Let's just do it," Margaret said.

"Okay, Felix. I'll tell you when to unpower and repower our shields. Margaret, be ready to drum."

"Got it. Unpause!"

The millipede fired first, but the Kestrel's shield easily absorbed the shot. Meredith returned fire and put their weapon systems in the orange. Not enough to disable their laser gun, but enough to disable their ion gun.

"Great. We might not even have to worry about that tactic we talked about," Meredith said with a smirk.

Another one of Meredith's vollies, and the pirate ship's weapons were completely crippled. She followed up by taking out their shields, their engines, and then their piloting. They could not retaliate. The last few shots onto their piloting system were enough to destroy the pirate ship.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 3, Drone Part 1, Scrap 15_

"Wow, that was way too easy!" Chase exclaimed. "Nice shooting, Meredith."

"Thanks, Chase."

"Woah, is that Earth?"

Margaret looked at the view below the ship, seeing a planet with blue oceans and light-red continents. It looked like a darkened version of Earth. It seemed there were multiple red nebulas in the background as well as bright blue, green, and red stars. The stars looked like small Christmas ornaments in the distance, just hanging in space.

"I wish it was! But man, this is just gorgeous," Felix said.

They all spent a moment admiring the view. Felix powered down the engines so they could view it in silence.

"It's funny to think that all of this imagery came from the minds of some simple humans making a video game, huh?" Chase stated after a few minutes of quiet.

"I think it's pretty amazing, actually," Meredith said.

"Yeah, but stuff like this exists in real life! Haven't you guys ever seen pictures of the cool things in space? Nebulas? Distant galaxies? We say all these awesome things about video games, but we forget that real life has some pretty amazing things too," Felix commented.

"It looks nice and all, but I prefer to have my feet on solid ground. In-game and in real life," Margaret stated.

"We do need to get back to real life, anyways. Shall we get a move on?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah, let's go."

Felix pulled up the map of the sector. The Rebel fleet had already overtaken half of the sector, but the Kestrel safely two jumps away from the exit beacon.

"We got a distress signal coming from the next beacon," Felix declared.

"All right, let's save some people!" Chase said eagerly.

Felix hit the JUMP and they were launched to the next beacon.


	7. Chapter 7

**You follow the distress signal beacon to a tiny asteroid belt. You find a small ship struggling to maneuver through the field.**

 **They respond: "Help! Our shields are down and we won't last long!"**

 **1\. Try to shield their ship with yours.**

 **2\. Don't risk our ship. Leave them to their fate.**

"We'll take damage, but there's a chance that they'll reward us with something if they survive. Since we're almost at full health, I would recommend trying to shield their ship," Meredith stated.

Chase had taken note of how desperate the female voice had sounded. Clearly, they wouldn't last long, and once again, it was up to him to save them.

"It's our duty to try and save them. If they ain't Rebels, they're good in my book," he declared.

"If you say so!" Margaret said.

"Let's do it," Felix agreed.

He pressed option one.

 **You try your best but one stray rock hits a key structure in their ship. It breaks apart in front of your eyes. You salvage what you can before leaving, and try not to think about the lost crew.**

 _Scrap 9_

Felix stared at the message and read it over again. The glaring green 9 stared back at him, unmoving and unfeeling. Scrap 9 was all that remained of the crew of that ship. Their names would be forgotten, and their lives were meaningless. If their own ship was destroyed, they would meet a similar fate. Felix grew sick at the thought of it. He shook his head furiously. Why was he getting so worked up over some stupid computer game?

"What? Only 9 scrap?" Margaret complained. "Was it really that small of a ship?"

"Yeah, but I'm just glad that our ship didn't take any damage. Better them than us, right?" Meredith repeated.

"Better them than us. Better them than us," Felix muttered.

"Exactly. Felix gets it," Chase said.

Felix decided it was better to follow the message's advice and "try not to think about the lost crew," even though that would be impossible. He smacked himself on the side of the head for being such a bleeding heart.

"We're moving on to the store at the next beacon. Ready?" he asked loudly.

The crew responded in the affirmative. Felix took a brief glance at the background. It was the same exactly blue planet. This was just a game, it made sense after all. He hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **You find yourself surrounded by a group of mysterious alien vessels. They hail you and apparently have some valuable technology for sale.**

The STORE menu came up with many possible purchases. There were four sections on the page: ITEMS, SYSTEMS, REPAIR, and HIRE CREW.

"Meredith, what should we get?"

They had 72 scrap, which wasn't enough to purchase any SYSTEMS. Those were off the table.

"We don't want to hire any more crewmembers at the moment, since we have all four of our essential systems already manned. We actually want to save the scrap for upgrading our shields," Meredith said, standing awfully close to Felix at his control panel. "If you look over there, those are fuel, missiles, and drone parts."

He initially followed her pointing finger, but his eyes went down her arm and to the rest of her before quickly returning to the screen. He felt his face turn a tiny bit red, confused about what had made him do that.

"Any weapons?" Chase asked.

"Yeah, any good loot?" Margaret followed up.

"No. We should just buy all the fuel and head to the exit beacon."

"Okay then."

Felix bought five units of fuel and closed the STORE menu, revealing the red nebulas spilled in the background behind them.

"That's a relief," Chase said, breathing out.

"Why's that?" Meredith asked. "It's not like we got anything good."

"I consider it a good day when we come out safe after a message like 'you find yourself surrounded by a group of mysterious alien vessels'!"

Meredith laughed.

"The beacon was marked STORE. There's absolutely no way that this could have been anything but a peaceful store," she said.

"You can never be too careful," he replied.

"Yes, well I suppose that's true."

"Ready to go, then? Let's go to the exit beacon," Felix said.

"Yeah, let's go!" Chase shouted with enthusiasm.

Felix FTL jumped them to the beacon.

* * *

 **You've arrived at the Long-Range Beacon. When the FTL Drive is charged you can jump to the next Sector.**

 **You see a civilian space station with heavy damage. You receive a message, 'We've been hit hard by the war. We need more drone parts to speed up our repairs. We'll buy some from you if you have extra.'**

 **1\. 3 drone parts for 12 scrap.**

 **2\. Sell 6 drone parts for 24 scrap.**

 **3\. Sell 12 drone parts for 48 scrap.**

 **4\. Ignore the station.**

"Hmm… this is basically asking us if we'll ever buy drone control," Meredith mused.

"What should we do?" Chase asked.

"I'm not sure. I'll have to think about it. This isn't an easy choice."

The ship fell silent, save for the humming of the engine.

After a while, Felix asked, "How useful are drones anyway?"

"Very useful. Defense drones are the only reliable way to destroy missiles. If we ever get the luxury of having two Defense drones, it would be very helpful for the final boss."

"Why? Does the final boss have two missile launchers?"

"No, it has a gun that fires three missiles in quick succession."

"What? That's ridiculous."

"Oh, and it has more weapons. No use in worrying about it now though. I've come to a decision, anyway. Let's ignore the station. We'll need drone control eventually."

"Okay…"

Felix pressed option four, closing the options menu and revealing the Earth-like planet again. Typical of a video game. He pressed the JUMP button. This time, there was a large glowing button on the top right that said "NEXT SECTOR." After selecting it, the SECTOR MAP popped out. A strange array of a variety of colored circles appeared on the map. They were linked together by white lines. Two of those green circles were being highlighted by yellow targets: 1. Zoltan Controlled, and 2. Civilian Sector.

"Meredith, which one should we go to?"

"We should probably hit the Zoltan Controlled sector, since the rest of the sectors on the path are hostile."

"Hostile? Isn't that a bad thing?"

"Remember, the more scrap we get from destroying ships, the better prepared we'll be for the final fight. We can get more scrap from clearing hostile sectors."

"Isn't there a higher chance that we'll get killed on the way?" Chase asked.

"If we don't upgrade our ship enough, we'll get killed at the final boss anyway. This is the best option, trust me."

"Our lives are on the line, Meredith. Are you completely sure?" Chase asked again.

"Yes."

"Okay then. It's settled. Off we go to the Zoltans," Felix declared.

He clicked the Zoltan beacon and their ship disappeared.

* * *

 **The Zoltan patrol their borders but let you pass when you ID as Federation. Let's hope they won't be so courteous to the Rebels.**

The crew gathered in a common room to map out their course through the sector and discuss strategy.

"Anything we should know about the Zoltan sector?" Felix asked.

"Zoltans are green alien men that provide one bar of power to whatever system they're standing in. They have low health, and when they die, they explode and hurt enemies in the room," Meredith explained.

"That sounds nasty," Chase commented.

"I wouldn't worry about it. That's only a problem if they try to board our ship with teleporters. I don't think that'll be an issue, since Zoltans are non-hostile to the Federation."

They remembered the message they got earlier about letting them through the borders.

"The main issue will be the Zoltan pirate ships in this sector. Zoltan ships start battles with a green overshield that doesn't recharge. We'll have to take those down first before we can chip away at their actual hull. Otherwise, it'll be just like any other battle."

The crew all nodded.

"Okay, let's get to our stations and get going," Felix said.

They jumped to the first beacon.

* * *

 **This drone isn't looking for you. Perhaps it's scouting ahead for the Rebel expansion or maybe they're seeking to use this nebula for cover. Regardless, it identifies you as hostile.**

A red icon of a cloud in a warning triangle with the word "DANGER!" appeared on Felix's screen. He hovered over it and read it aloud to the crew:

 _"You're inside a nebula. Your sensors will not function, but the Rebel fleet will advance more slowly towards you."_

The enemy ship was a Rebel Auto-Assault. It was armed with a large laser gun and it had a combat drone deployed, floating menacingly around the Kestrel.

"The nebula won't be an issue... the drone will be though. Their beam can't penetrate shields, but as soon as their laser gun takes down our shields, the beam drone is going to light us up. We're just going to have to brace for impact and hope our shields regenerate in time," Meredith stated grimly.

"I'll do my best," Margaret chirped.

"Okay, let's do it. Unpause!" yelled Felix.

The beam drone seemed to fire its beam every few seconds. Luckily, it finished firing right before the enemy laser took down the shields and started firing right after the shield recharged.

"Yeah! I did it!" Margaret shouted in elation.

The beams pinged uselessly against the Kestrel's newly-formed shield. Meanwhile, Meredith fired a return volley and took out the enemy weapons. The enemy wasn't given a chance to bring their weapons back online and retaliate; her next four vollies took out the enemy drone system, shields, and eventually the entire ship.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missiles 1, Drone Parts 1, Scrap 17_

Felix felt a lot better about destroying an auto-drone ship than he did destroying a ship with actual people on it.

"Good work, Meredith. Solid shooting."

"Thanks. All part of the job."

Large purple nebula clouds billowed in the background, obstructing their view. Only in nebulas were the backgrounds actually animated; at the previous beacons, the stars didn't shine and the planets didn't spin. Staring at the gently-rolling clouds was strangely relaxing.

"It's good that we're getting a hang of this. This isn't actually that bad," Chase stated.

"It's true that we're getting used to our stations, but that doesn't mean that we're invincible. Unfortunately, this game is very random, and it can go randomly against us. The best we can do is to try to play perfectly and minimize our chances of defeat, even in the smallest skirmishes," Meredith lectured.

"It's up to you to tell us how to play perfectly, Meredith. None of us have played this game before. If for some reason, God forbid, you…" Felix stuttered.

"If I die, the rest of you guys are most likely screwed," Meredith finished.

This was the first time the crew had considered this. Without their living game encyclopedia, the three of them would be left playing blind. Meredith had been providing them with useful information and tactics before every battle. Would the three of them even have made it this far without her?

"So, she's Shepard!" Chase declared with a smile.

"What?" Felix inquired.

"Well, in Mass Effect, you play as the main character, which of course is Shepard. If one of your party members is downed in a fight, it's okay. They aren't permanently dead. If you as Shepard die, then it's game over. So, Meredith is our Shepard. Plus, the whole part that she's the most important member of the Normandy."

"The Kestrel," Meredith piped in.

"Yeah, whatever. Normandy."

"So what?"

"That means that we have to protect her no matter what. Sorry to say it, but her life is worth all our lives. We have to be willing to sacrifice ourselves to keep her alive. We need our Commander Shepard to finish the fight."

"I think that's a Master Chief line," Meredith said.

"Right. But my point still stands," Chase replied.

"I'll gladly lay down my life to protect her, if it means that the rest of you will live," Felix declared with gusto.

"Wow, you said that so seriously, Felix!" Margaret commented.

"Don't throw yourselves into the path of danger just for my sake, guys. I'd be crushed if anything happened to any of you," Meredith said. "When all this is over, we'll all, and I mean all, meet up in real life and celebrate."

"And play some FTL," Chase quipped.

The rest of the crew groaned. Typical Chase.


	8. Chapter 8

**It appears the distress beacon is coming from the surface of a nearby moon. Your sensors are picking up a single life form.**

 **1\. Go down to the surface to investigate.**

 **2\. Ignore the signal.**

"This is a chance for us to get another crew member," Meredith said, albeit with some hesitation.

"Sounds good to me. Let's do option one then," Chase said.

"However, there is a chance that the person is dangerous and will randomly kill one of us."

"Oh shit. Never mind then."

"We'll get a chance to turn the person down once we see what kind of state he or she is in, don't worry. For now, let's just see what message we get," Meredith responded.

"Okay, are you sure?" Felix asked.

"Yeah."

Felix hit option one.

 **You find a man living alone in a cave. From the appearance of his wrecked ship, it seems he's been there for many years. He looks healthy, but his mental state is questionable.**

 **1\. Bring him back to your ship in hopes of finding some help for him.**

 **2\. Leave the madman to his ravings, he's not worth the risk.**

"No, this is too risky. Let's just leave him," Meredith said after sighing, disappointed that they wouldn't be getting a crewmember. "There's no point in risking one of us getting killed just to get another crewmember. We already have all the essential stations manned, anyway."

"Is there a chance that this person is actually a real-life person and not an NPC?" Felix questioned.

"Maybe, but when given the option between saving someone we know and saving someone we don't know, I'm going to go with the former. It's a shame, though."

Felix winced at the thought of leaving behind a stranded man, but it hurt even more to think about one of them dying. Especially if Meredith was the one to die.

"Screw 'em, Felix. Let's just get out of here," Chase said.

Felix hit option two.

There was a red Mars-like planet floating behind them with a singular bright star behind it. That man, NPC or not, would be stuck on that moon probably for the rest of his life. He had managed to live all these years on his own, so Felix supposed that it was okay to leave him there. Felix hit the JUMP to the next beacon, deep in the purple nebula.

* * *

 **This nebula turns out to be the hiding place of a terrified rock crew taking refuge from the Zoltan border police. They don't seem prepared to risk your leaving with their co-ordinates, and open fire!**

Yet again, this was another millipede-looking ship with its engines off among the purple clouds. However, this one had no purple pirate paint splashed over it, meaning that it was actually crewed by rocks rather than pirates.

"Looks like they have a mini-beam and a single shot heavy laser. We might take a few hits, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem," Meredith analyzed.

"Got it, ready guys?"

Felix unpaused.

The enemy ship fired its laser first, taking down the Kestrel's one-layer shield, but Meredith returned fire at the perfect time, shutting down their weapons before they could do any damage with their beam weapon. She shot a volley at their shields, damaging them before switching back to the enemy weapons once they were repaired. As soon as they fixed their shields, Meredith destroyed their weapons once again. The enemy rock ship never got a chance to retaliate.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missiles 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 17_

"Easy peasy, boys!" Chase yelled over the intercom. "Gimme that sweet scrap!"

"Good job, we took down a terrified rock crew hiding from the police. Honorable fight," Felix replied sarcastically. "And please don't say 'better them than us.'"

"Woah, you're being a little cranky, aren't you, Felix?"

"I'm just saying we should show a little more respect to the people we blow up. You know, on the off-chance that they're people just like us."

"Hey, I'm just happy that we're alive. Aren't you?"

"Not like we have much of a choice. We have to fight to stay alive. I'm sorry I can't be as happy as you when we're stuck in a situation like this."

"Come on guys, let's just keep going," Margaret's mantis voice chirped. "We're a team, remember? We can't fight each other."

"To be fair, a good team will give constructive criticism to each other, and it can benefit everyone. However, in this case, the discussion is taking a turn for the worse. Let's remain civil, and proceed with our respect intact," Meredith said.

"All right, let's just go," Felix agreed, feeling defeated.

"Cheer up, man. We're in this together," Chase said.

Felix didn't respond. He hit the JUMP button, launching them out of the nebula.

* * *

 **Something strikes you as odd about a moon in the distance.**

 **1\. Check it out.**

 **2\. Leave it be.**

Usually very quick to speak up, Meredith remained silent.

"What do we do, Commander?" Chase asked.

"To be honest, I don't quite remember what happens in this event. However, I don't think it was bad, since I would remember if there was a negative outcome. I believe we should take option one."

"Everyone else agree?" Felix questioned.

They assented to the decision, so Felix hit option one.

 **A closer inspection reveals signs of habitation on the surface, but nothing else particularly interesting.**

There was absolutely nothing.

"Well, that's quite the shame. A wasted beacon," Meredith muttered. "Onwards, then."

The aforementioned planet was the exact Earth-like planet, except it was larger than the others. A red giant also hovered in the background, the first that the crew had seen. Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **Despite their precautions, pirates have begun to harass the local Zoltan settlements across this sector. One such pirate spots your ship and moves in to attack.**

This ship looked like a misshapen green crystal with large orange spots. There was the unmistakable purple pirate coating on it as well. The strangest feature of the ship was the large green egg-shaped shield surrounding it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that is a Zoltan overshield. We can take it down pretty easily with our three-shot laser, but until then, we'll have to survive their attacks. It looks like they have a setup similar to the rock ship we faced before: a laser gun and a beam weapon," Meredith explained.

This time, the beam weapon was significantly longer in size. The shield looked formidable.

"Okay, let's do it. Unpause!" Felix declared.

The pirate ship fired first, shooting a single laser that easily took down the Kestrel's shield. However, their beam weapon took too long to charge up and dissolved uselessly into the Kestrel's newly recharged shield layer.

"Nice, Margaret!"

Meredith sunk three shots into the Zoltan overshield, but it still remained up. Another volley, and the overshield was finally taken down. The pirates fired another mistimed combo, the beam weapon useless against the quickly regenerating Kestrel shield. However, the pirates' third combo was timed perfectly. Their laser took down the Kestrel shield and the beam fired immediately afterwards, dragging itself across the Kestrel's medbay, bringing it into the red.

"Medbay is down! We're hit!" Felix screamed.

Weirdly enough, the Kestrel members didn't feel the laser impact the ship at all, even though they saw it dance through the medbay.

"It's fine, it only did one hull damage. We probably won't need the medbay this fight, so we'll wait until after the battle to repair it," Meredith said.

Meredith sent volley after volley into the pirates' weapon system, effectively disabling it for the fight. Pretty soon, the pirates offered surrender. Meredith read the terms.

"Not good enough. Felix, hit it," Meredith commanded.

Felix hit option two and Meredith proceeded to blow them up.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 19_

Felix, Chase, and Meredith met up in the medbay to screw in the bolts.

"That beam weapon didn't wreak as much havoc as I thought it would," Felix stated while screwing.

"Yeah, the AI generally doesn't aim their beam optimally. Usually, a player-guided beam will hit three, four, or even five rooms and do that much damage to the enemy hull."

"Damn, that's a lot!" Chase exclaimed. "Where do we get one of those babies?"

"In a store, or we get lucky and find one."

"I have to admit, this Burst Laser we have is pretty good though."

"It's great, but we'll eventually need another weapon to complement it. For now, we should upgrade our shields, which we now have enough scrap for," Meredith said.

After the repairs, Felix and Meredith went to the piloting room. He opened up the SHIP menu and upgraded the shields and reactor twice each. Upon closing the menu, Felix could hear an electric hum. The Kestrel's shield grew thicker and more blue.

"Now it'll be a lot harder for enemies in this sector to touch us. Shields are arguably the most important upgrades to get in the early sectors."

Felix watched Meredith looking at the screen, seemingly engrossed by it. He couldn't tell if it was because of the power of the new shield, the red galaxies in the background, the stars, or something else. However, all he could think about was saying something to her. Maybe something about how beautiful she was, or about how she was a great leader. He quickly remembered that everything they said was spread via intercom. His hopes were shot. Perhaps it was best to save this kind of stuff for after they got out of FTL.

Meredith looked back at Felix and saw the strange look on his face.

"Something wrong, Felix?"

"Oh, what? Oh! It's nothing," he replied, flustered.

She smiled sadly.

"It's okay to feel for the people that we have to beat in battle. It's good to maintain some sense of humanity while we make our way through this game."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. It might seem like I don't care about it, but I do. I just have to worry about the tactical stuff more, and it's distracting to think of both at once. I'll leave it to you, Felix."

"Okay."

Meredith returned to her station and Felix JUMPED them to the next beacon.

* * *

 **You pick up the last broadcast from a rupturing Zoltan freighter: "The Mantis, they're here, please." You're interrupted by fire off the port bow!**

A red, three-pronged Mantis ship hovered menacingly in the target view.

"Do you guys see that room on their ship with the circle and downwards pointing arrow?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"That's a teleporter. We're going to be boarded."

"Oh, fuck. We have to fight them?"

"Yes."

"Do we stand a chance?"

"Yeah. Whether they send a human or a Mantis, we'll have to send two people to fight the invader to stand a chance. If any of you get below 25 hit points, then head to the medbay immediately. Felix, if this happens, take a point of power from the Artemis and redirect it into the medbay. Everyone understand?"

Everyone else said yes, with some trepidation.

"Also, it'll be optimal if Margaret is one of the fighter, since her Mantis form is excellent for combat. Are you ready to fight, Margaret?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah! Let's rip them a new one!" she shouted.

"Oh, all right then! Showtime!"

Felix unpaused.

The enemy ship had a single-shot heavy laser and a bomb launcher. A few seconds after the battle began, an enemy Mantis teleported onto the Kestrel. It skittered into the weapons room. Prepared for battle, Meredith spun around with her gun as soon as it entered and opened fire. Felix hit pause.

"You need backup?" he asked.

"Yeah, I need Margaret in here at once."

They unpaused, and Margaret ran to the weapons room as fast as possible. The Mantis had begun to spit acid at Meredith in response to her shots. Both of them couldn't dodge at all, so each forced to trade acid spit and gun bursts, respectively. Luckily, Margaret burst into the room and threw herself onto the enemy Mantis, engaging it in hand-to-hand combat. While the she and the enemy clawed away at each other furiously, Meredith fired shot after shot into the enemy's thorax. They could both see the enemy's health deplete rapidly, while Margaret only took half of her health in damage. The enemy Mantis was quickly defeated, and its corpse sunk to the ground and proceeded to disappear.

"Good work, Margaret. Get back to the shields and let's finish this," Meredith commanded.

Meanwhile, the Kestrel's automated system chose to fire at the Mantis ship's weapons system, completely taking them offline. Meredith assumed direct control of the system and sent another volley into their weapons and their shields systems. Without the boarders and their weapons, the Mantis ship was quickly dispatched.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 24_

Felix powered up the medbay and both Meredith and Margaret went in to heal. They both watched each other with wonder as their injuries quickly vanished. While Meredith had been tagged in the chest and the arms a few times, Margaret was torn up rather badly.

"Are you okay? Did that hurt?" Meredith asked.

"That…"

"I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"...was AWESOME! Did you see me rip that guy to shreds? I was all like 'Rawr!' and he was all like 'Bleh!'"

Meredith raised her hands in surprise and grinned.

"Yeah, not bad! We did some good work there."

"Ahh, the combat reminds me of Runescape combat. We just stood there and traded blows until one of us dies. That's something I'm used to."

"I'm glad combat is such a good fit for you."

"Granted, it did hurt, but it's nice to know that I made the enemy hurt even more," Margaret said, rubbing her forelegs together.

"Are you okay, ladies?" Chase asked through the intercom.

"Yeah, we're perfectly fine, man. Turns out Margaret is a natural."

"Aw, shucks. I just did what I had to do to protect our leader!"

Felix gave this some thought, sitting alone in his chair. Even though he was the pilot and sat at the helm, he wasn't the captain of the ship. Was that normal? Captain Kirk wasn't the pilot on the Enterprise in Star Trek, right? Meredith had every right to be the captain of their ship. He couldn't help but feel a little jealous of all the respect that she commanded, though. Although he had stated that he would do anything to protect Meredith's life, that didn't mean that he had to be subordinate to her. Anyways, it was time he used the one power he had over the rest of the crew.

"Ready to jump? Let's get moving," Felix said.

The rest of them hustled back to their stations and Felix slammed the JUMP button with a satisfied smirk.


	9. Chapter 9

**You jump into a debris field that used to be a Zoltan cruiser. Unfortunately, its Engi escort takes you for the attacker and retaliates! They refuse all hails.**

The ship in front of them looked like a giant grey metal doughnut, complete with a hole through the center.

"That's a typical Engi ship. It's not clear what weapons they have, but this is the first ship we've seen with two layers of shields. We might have to rely on missiles to take them out," Meredith explained.

"Okay, let's see what they're made of. Unpause!"

Immediately, the Engi ship powered up an ion gun, a small laser gun, and a defense drone.

"Remember what I said about turning off the shields before the ion shot hits. Also, since they have a defense drone, I won't be able to use our missiles. We'll have to hope for the best. If things don't go well, we can always jump out," Meredith said.

"Got it. Engage!"

Before Meredith had a chance to fire the burst laser, the ion gun fired and Felix powered down the shields. The blue ion ball hit the weapons room, completely discharging the burst laser. Felix immediately repowered the shields, but before they could completely recharge, the ion gun fired again. It hit the shields and took down the second layer. Without a moment to spare, the Engi ship fired their laser, taking down the remaining Kestrel shield. Another ion shot hit the engine. A laser shot hit the Kestrel.

"Are we ever going to return fire?" Chase shouted through the intercom.

"I'm trying!"

Meredith fired a volley at the Engi ship, but one shot missed. The other two failed to reach the enemy hull. Another ion ball disabled their shields, and the enemy laser struck the Kestrel's shields system.

"I'm hit!" Margaret yelled.

Meredith paused the game.

"Felix, let's get out of here. We aren't going to win this fight. Power up our shields and engines. We're leaving," she commanded.

"Okay."

Felix watched the FTL drive bar charge up to full and hit JUMP as soon as it popped up. The Kestrel disappeared to the next beacon.

* * *

 **You cycle through wide-band comm channels as soon as you arrive. Nothing but static.**

This beacon, situated in the middle of another purple nebula, was devoid of activity This gave the crew some time to catch their breath. Margaret went to the medbay to heal while Meredith and Chase repaired the shields system. They didn't say a word while doing so.

"Wow. That sucked!" Chase said, breaking the silence after a while.

"We didn't even hit them once," Margaret murmured.

"Is every fight going to be that hard from now on?" Felix asked.

"I'd like to say that that fight was an anomaly. The fact that they had two layers of shields and a defense drone to shoot down our missiles meant that we had a very low chance of winning. Their ion weapon also had a prodigiously fast firing rate. I would chalk this up to bad luck," Meredith surmised.

"You don't sound very sure," Chase responded.

"Well, FTL does has a substantial random element to it. That's what makes it challenging," she said. "Regardless, we didn't incur any serious damage. We still have 26 hull points remaining, and all of us our still alive. Shall we continue?"

"Sure."

Felix waited for everyone to get back to their stations and hit JUMP.

* * *

 **A Rebel ship hails. "We did not fight a war to let a single Federation ship shatter our dreams of a better galaxy!" He locks weapons.**

"Meredith, what we got?"

"Looks like a typical Rebel Disruptor. They have a heavy laser gun… oh, I see. They have drone control and a hacking system."

"Hacking?"

"Yes. They shoot a drone that attaches to a random system on our ship, disabling for around five to ten seconds at a time. Hopefully, it attaches to less useful system, like our medbay."

"And what happens if it attaches to our shields or weapons?"

"Then we'll just have to make do. We have no other choice. Brace yourselves."

"Okay, let's do it."

After Felix unpaused, the Kestrel's crew all heard a large metal clunking sound. A drone looking like a grappling hook claw flew straight at the Kestrel and grappled onto its oxygen system. The oxygen meter on Felix's screen turned purple and the oxygen percentage began to rapidly decrease.

"That… does not look good," Felix said.

Meanwhile, an enemy combat drone circled the Kestrel, firing its laser every few seconds.

"Don't worry. Their two weapons won't be able to penetrate our two layers of shield. We just have to destroy their hacking system to avoid asphyxiation," Meredith analyzed.

The enemy ship and combat drone mined away at the Kestrel's shields, but the shields always recharged in time to block every shot. Margaret was pounding away at the drums.

"Hah! Not even close!"

Meredith fired a volley, of which every shot connected with the enemy hacking system. Her next volley took out the Rebel shields, and then their engines. Then the game paused:

 **They offer you some of their cargo if you let them live.**

 **1\. Accept their offer.** _Missiles 4, Drone Part 1, Scrap 14_

 **2\. We will not accept surrender!"**

"No surrender, right?" Felix shouted.

"Wait."

Meredith looked over the offer and noticed the four missiles.

"This actually is a solid offer. If we obtain those four missiles, then we can use them more liberally in future fights. There might be some fights coming up that we need to use missiles to win. Take the offer, Felix," Meredith said.

She expected him to immediately go through with the deal, but nothing happened. Instead, his voice crackled through the intercom.

"Do the rest of you agree with her order?" he questioned.

"Well, as much as I love blowing up Rebel scum, if Meredith thinks we need the missiles, then we should talk the offer," Chase replied.

"Let's go with Meredith's plan!" Margaret followed up.

"Hmph. Well, okay then."

He accepted their offer and and promptly JUMPED to the next beacon.

* * *

 **There are some mineral-rich asteroids here that the Zoltan have left idle, but you've none of the necessary equipment to mine them.**

Felix JUMPED again.

* * *

 **A Rebel ship hails you: "Federation scum! We've waited a long time for this!"**

"Looks like they have a heavy laser gun and a beam weapon," Meredith said.

Felix unpaused and shouted, "Let's go!"

"Hey, I didn't explain-"

"We'll be fine. They only have a one-shot laser gun. Open fire, Meredith!"

"Okay, okay."

She took down their weapons in one volley, but then paused.

"We have a good opportunity here," she began to explain.

"Who told you to stop firing?" Felix challenged. "Because I certainly didn't."

"Felix, what's gotten into you? I just wanted to point out that since their weapons can never hit our ship, this would be a good time to train our shields, piloting, and engine skills."

"...What?"

"Do you see our skill levels on our character list? Every time a shot is absorbed by the shields, Margaret will gain shields experience. The higher her skill level, the faster she can recharge the shields. Every time we dodge an enemy shot, you and Chase will gain experience in piloting and engines, respectively. By letting them fire on us for a while, we can completely max out your skills," Meredith explained.

"That sounds kinda cheap. Is this allowed?" Chase asked.

"Yes, it's quite a legitimate tactic. This will increase our chances of success drastically."

"So we just sit here and take fire?" Felix questioned.

"Yes. After all, they only have a one-shot laser gun."

"All right."

Felix unpaused and the Rebel ship fired away. Each shot was easily absorbed by the shields, and their beam dissipated harmlessly into the Kestrel's shield. The shots that were absorbed by the shield gave experience to Margaret, and those that were dodged gave experience to Chase and Felix. After five minutes or so, Chase and Felix had reached max level.

"Felix, step off the piloting system and let all the shots hit the shields. Margaret still needs more experience," Meredith ordered.

"Sure, fine."

Felix made his way over to the weapons room. Meredith turned around towards him, surprised by his entrance. He had a stern look.

"So who's going to be the captain of the ship?" he asked directly.

"Well, umm… although there are certainly merits to assigning a captain to the ship, it's not a necessity in our scenario. We all equally contribute."

"I think we all know that's not true. You're clearly the most knowledgeable person here, which makes you think that you should be the captain."

"That's a reasonable argument, but-"

"See, of course you would agree. And I know the other two will follow you without question."

"I don't understand why this issue is upsetting you, Felix. What's wrong?"

"I'm just saying that I don't think we should automatically declare you the captain of the ship."

Meredith crossed her arms.

"I'm perfectly fine with that. As I said before, we don't need a captain."

Felix believed she was speaking condescendingly to him, which infuriated him.

"Good. No captains then," he declared through gritted teeth. "Everyone agree with that?"

"Whatever, man. Margaret's done leveling. Can we get this fight over with?" Chase responded.

Felix spun around without a word and returned to the piloting station.

"Unpause. Open fire," he stated.

Meredith complied, but in her mind, she decided to do so on her own terms instead of his. After a series of volleys, the impotent Rebel ship exploded.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missiles 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 17_

"Ready to jump?" Felix barked.

"Hold on a second. Can we talk?" Meredith asked. "It seems like something is upsetting you."

"Honestly, I think that if anyone should be captain, then it should be me," Felix admitted.

"Didn't you just say that you didn't want a captain?" Chase asked.

"I wasn't sure about it before. Now I think we should have one."

"Why should it be you? If anything, Meredith should be the captain. Hell, if it's you, then why can't it be me or Margaret?"

"I pilot the ship, so I should be the captain."

"You are aware that the pilot isn't always the captain, right? I'm pretty sure Darth Vader didn't pilot the Death Star. Heck, Shepard wasn't even the pilot of the Normandy."

Felix didn't respond.

"I think Felix should be the captain," Meredith finally said.

"What? You serious?" Chase exclaimed in disbelief.

"I think he'd make a great captain. Plus, he has control over the reactor and all the power systems, which he has shown he can manage well. I vote for him. How about you two?"

"Sure, I'll vote for him," Margaret said.

"Meredith, you should be the captain. Isn't this choice obvious?" Chase asked.

"I'm just a knowledgeable weapons operator. Felix has the makings of an excellent captain."

"My vote goes for Meredith, and that's final," Chase declared. "I want to make it clear where I stand, even if my vote doesn't matter."

Felix was puzzled by Meredith's vote. Why was she supporting him after his aggressive interactions with her and the rest of the crew? Did she really think that he was going to be a good captain? Regardless, he would try his best to prove her right and prove Chase wrong. He was quite happy with the outcome.

"I vote for myself, of course. Just watch, with me in command, we'll get out of this alive," Felix said.

"Don't tell us you want us to call you Captain now," Chase groaned, trying to inject a little humor into the tense situation.

"That's actually a great idea, why don't you do that, Ensign Chase?"

"Hey, why am I an Ensign?"

"Don't worry, if you do well enough, you can become an Ensign First Class."

"What am I?" Margaret piped in.

"Hmm… I think you're lieutenant material, Lieutenant Margaret."

"Ooo, that sounds official. I love roleplaying! Aye, aye, Captain!"

"Why's the new girl get to be a lieutenant?" Chase lamented.

"And I deem the lovely Meredith worthy enough to be a commander, Commander Meredith. Got a problem with that, Ensign?"

"Hey, hey, calm down there, Captain Kirk. Don't let all that power get to your head," Chase replied.

"It is my solemn duty and responsibility to serve as the captain of this ship, the Kestrel. It is not something I take lightly," Felix stated melodramatically.

"All right, Spiderman. Now that this debacle is settled and the baby has his candy, can we please just move on to the next beacon?"

"I will consider that option, indeed," Felix mused with a bad British accent.

Meanwhile, Meredith stood in silence in front of the weapons panel. Felix had called her lovely. Did he really think she was pretty? Did he like her? She was starting to like him too. To her surprise, she became even more attracted to him after he started giving out orders and taking control. This seemed extremely foolish of her, and the thought of it made her blush. However, while she liked his newly discovered authoritativeness, he was still noticeably intimidated by her at the same time. She thought that was adorable.

She could tell that Felix really wanted to be the captain of the ship, so why not let him try his hand at playing leader? Voting for him to be leader was the simplest way to defuse the predicament. After all, if he turned out to be a great leader, then if something ever happened to her, it wouldn't be as devastating as a blow to their morale, and he could still lead the rest of the crew onwards. If she was the leader and she was killed, that would be tantamount to a killing blow to the rest of the crew's morale: The leader and the game encyclopedia smashed like all the eggs put into a single basket.

As she mulled it over, Felix hit the JUMP button to the exit beacon and they were on their way.


	10. Chapter 10

**You've arrived at the Long-Range Beacon. when the FTL Drive is charged you can jump to the next Sector.**

 **Civilian colonists loyal to the Rebel cause are present on a nearby planet. It looks like they care currently receiving a supply shipment. Could be useful.**

 **1\. Attack the Rebels**

 **2\. Wait and steal the supplies from the civilians.**

 **3\. Leave them be.**

"If we want the most possible amount of supplies, I suggest that we attack the Rebels, defeat them, and then take supplies from the civilians," Meredith stated.

"Sounds reasonable enough, Commander. Everyone ready?"

Meredith noted the lack of concern for the NPC lives in Felix's voice. Had he really changed that quickly?

"You really going to refer to us by those titles, man?" Chase asked.

"You bet, Ensign. Like I was saying, everyone ready? Let's attack!"

Felix pressed option one.

The enemy ship was a Rebel Rigger, armed only with a small beam weapon and a beam drone.

"They can't penetrate our shields," Meredith declared. "They don't stand a chance."

The Rebel ship went down unceremoniously.

" **With the Rebel ship destroyed, you take the time to collect what little scrap remains. They had already made their delivery to the civilians.**

 _Missiles 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 11_

 **1\. Steal the civilian supplies.**

 **2\. Leave the civilians alone."**

Felix pressed option one after skimming the message. No hesitation.

 **You make the colonists teleport the supplies to your ship. It's nothing more than building construction supplies. Oh well, scrap is scrap.**

 _Scrap 11_

"Meredith, what sector should we go to next? Looks like we have a choice between a rock controlled and a pirate controlled sector," Felix said.

"Okay. Let's go to the pirate sector. If I recall correctly, Rock ships usually have many missile weapons, which we can't deal with since we don't have any defense drones," she responded.

"Sounds good."

Felix selected the pirate controlled sector and they were off.

* * *

 **A few Federation-friendly planets still exist in this sector, but they are constantly under attack by pirate raids. This is a dangerous sector, so be careful.**

"Exactly how dangerous is dangerous?" Margaret inquired.

"We won't know until we get into combat," Meredith replied.

"Commander, it looks like there's a store within jump range. Should we visit it?" Felix said.

"Not if we can help it. It's best to visit as many other beacons as possible before going there, so that we have as much scrap as possible to buy any essential upgrades. We want to avoid not being able to afford anything and wasting a jump… Captain."

Being called "Captain" made Felix perk up.

"Okay then! We'll jump somewhere else. Ready?"

The crew responded in the affirmative. Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

" **You arrive in an asteroid belt to discover that a Rebel automated-scout has been stationed here. Prepare for a fight!"**

The background was littered with thousands upon thousands of floating rocks.

"Umm, what the hell is this?" Chase yelled.

"We're in an asteroid field. Considering the situation, the asteroids are nothing to worry about. One will strike our shields every once in awhile, but Margaret should be able to recharge them fast enough before another one strikes. The main concern is the enemy missile weapon, which I'll disable with our own missile launcher. The enemy has two layers of shields, so missiles will help greatly," Meredith explained.

"Sounds good, Commander. Everyone ready?" Felix asked.

"Yes. It's up to you and Chase to dodge the missiles, Captain," she replied.

"Affirmative. Let's go!"

Felix unpaused.

 _"You're in an asteroid field. Periodically asteroids will strike your ship,"_ the DANGER icon read.

Immediately after the fight started, the rebel auto-ship revealed an additional laser weapon and a bomb weapon.

"They're more well-armed than we thought, guys!" Chase exclaimed.

The two ships exchanged fire at the same time. The enemy two-shot laser only brought down one layer of shields, but their missile struck the piloting system directly, knocking Felix out of his seat and disabling the system. The Kestrel's missile and laser volley did moderate damage to the rebel weapons, disabling their missile and laser weapons.

"Piloting is essential. Repair it as quickly as possible!" Meredith said.

Felix rubbed his head and got up. He was bruised and still a little woozy from the impact, but he pulled out his wrench and got to repairs.

Meredith missed her laser volley, but changed targets with her next one and destroyed the enemy shields. The auto-ship could not repair any of their systems in time, and without their shields, the rebel ship was torn apart by the asteroid belt grinder.

" **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material."**

 _Fuel 3, Missiles 2, Scrap 22_

"Everything okay, Captain?" Margaret asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm still on the crew list, aren't I? Just a little wounded."

Felix healed up in the medbay and then returned to the piloting room.

"Our hull is still in good condition," Meredith pointed out.

"Yeah, nothing to worry about. Let's hit the next beacon," Felix said.

* * *

 **As soon as you arrive, a small ship de-cloaks behind yours. You immediately power up the shields and weapons, but they continue on their trajectory unimpressed. You try to calm your nerves**

"Hmm… maybe that ship was like ours: manned by players from the real world," Felix speculated.

"I wouldn't think so, Captain. This is just one of the default empty beacon messages," Meredith responded.

"Are you sure? Do you remember this message specifically?"

"No, but it seems in line with other messages that I can remember."

Felix wanted to make contact with the mysterious ship to make sure that Meredith was correct, but they were already gone. If they were real people, at least they didn't open fire. Fighting other players was the last thing that Felix wanted. He JUMPED to the next beacon.

* * *

 **You are immediately contacted by a settlement, "Hello, travelers. Your ship seems to be outfitted for combat… care to take up a bit of mercenary work?**

 **1\. Listen to their offer.**

 **2\. Decline.**

"This is a good opportunity to get supplies. We should listen to their offer," Meredith suggested.

"Okay then."

Felix hit option one.

 **A space dock is under assault from the Rebels. Although the dock is… technically… illegal within their laws, it's very important for our trade. we'll pay you in fuel and scrap if you promise to save them.**

 **1\. Agree to rescue the store.**

 **2\. Decline.**

"Hey, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Though, in this case I guess it would be 'the illegalness towards illegals are legal to me'?" Chase said.

"That one needed more time in the oven, Chase," Margaret replied, chuckling.

"There's no downside in agreeing to rescue the store, even if we don't end up going to it. Let's accept the quest," Meredith stated.

Felix hit option one.

 **They transmit the space dock's coordinates.**

 **Added a quest marker to your map!**

Fortunately, the quest beacon was along their planned path, meaning they wouldn't have to go out of the way to clear it. Felix hit the JUMP button to the next beacon in a nebula.

* * *

 **You jump into the middle of a plasma storm. Multiple recently incapacitated ships loom in the shadows, briefly illuminated by the lightning.**

 **1\. Manually search the wreckage for survivors and equipment.**

 **2\. Avoid the risk and wait to jump away unscathed.**

"Wow, it's so dark outside. I'd hate to be caught out there!" Margaret commented.

"What's the plan, Meredith?" Chase asked.

"At this point, it's important that we get more equipment for our ship, despite the risk. A weapon would be most beneficial. Getting another crew member wouldn't be bad, either," Meredith explained.

"Any potential consequences?" Felix questioned. "It looks pretty hairy out there."

"Only minor ones. The worst that could happen is that we take minor hull damage. Also, it's possible that we find nothing. Since our hull is in good condition, it's worth the risk."

"Okay, sounds good. Let's do it."

Felix hit option one.

 **While the crew is off the ship searching through the wrecks, two hulls crash into each other breaking the crew's tethers. You have no time to react as someone is knocked away, floating helplessly into the gaseous clouds...**

 _Missiles 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 18 Magmar is gone_

The crew looked at the message in disbelief.

"Oh, no," Meredith said.

"What? Magmar is gone? You have got to be fucking kidding me!" Chase shouted.

"Do… does that say what I think it says?" Margaret asked faintly.

"Oh, thank god you're still here!" Chase said.

"I think she will disappear as soon as we press Continue," Meredith stated quietly.

"What? Really?" Margaret asked, her voice beginning to crack.

"Meredith! I thought you said this wouldn't happen? What the hell?" Chase yelled.

"I do not know. This should not have happened."

"But it did! And now we're going to lose Margaret!"

Margaret wailed.

"Oh, Christ. Oh, god," Chase muttered, his head in his hands.

"Commander. Meredith. Is there any way that we can prevent this?" Felix asked desperately.

"No. I am sorry. There is nothing we can do now."

"Damn it!" Felix yelled. "Then we're supposed to just let this happen?"

Meredith didn't respond. Margaret's sniffles echoed through the comms. No one knew what to do. Many minutes passed in almost complete silence. Millions of thoughts ran through each of their minds.

"Felix… Captain. You have to press Continue. We must press on," Meredith stated, her cold voice breaking the silence.

"I know, but we... at least have to say our goodbyes to Margaret first."

"It's okay! I don't want you guys to worry about little ol' me. Just press Continue!" Margaret said, all of the sadness seemingly gone from her voice.

"How could you say that? You mean so much to all of us. To me!" Chase responded.

"I don't want you guys to cry over my loss. I wasn't here for that long anyway. Just keep your heads up and keep going," she said.

"She's right," Meredith followed up.

"What? Meredith, this is all your-" Chase yelled.

Margaret interrupted him, "Meredith, I just want you to know that I don't blame you. You've already got us this far. You're a good person."

"There's no need to claim something untrue. I am responsible for this mistake," Meredith mumbled.

"Take care of the rest of the crew for me, will you, Meredith? Don't let the boys get into any trouble, you hear?"

"Of course, Margaret. Of course," Meredith replied, her usually confident voice shattering for the first time.

"Hey, it's not for certain that you're gone forever. Maybe you'll return to the real world instead! Right?" Chase asked longingly, not sure of his own words.

Margaret smiled.

"Chase, thank you for trying to protect me all of the time. I really enjoyed your jokes and your sense of humor. You're a really great guy."

"I'll see you once we get out of this game, I promise. I promise!" Chase exclaimed.

"And Felix?"

"Yeah?"

"It was a pleasure and an honor serving under you, Captain Felix. I know you'll have to make some tough decisions in the near future, and I understand more than ever now that even the best decisions have risks. I know you'll do what's best for the survival of our crew, though. I know you won't let us down. Get home safe, okay?"

"Okay, Lieutenant Margaret. I'll… do my best. It was a pleasure and an honor having you in the crew."

"Good to hear," Margaret said with a grin. "Now hit that Continue and get out of here, you hear? Go on, get!"

Not wanting to prolong the inevitable, Felix closed his eyes, grit his teeth, and pressed Continue.

"Farewell, Margaret," he whispered, tears rolling down his face.

The plasma storm raged in the background, briefly illuminating the black and purple swirling nebula clouds. The sounds of thunder reverberated throughout the Kestrel. The crew list had gone down to three members. The shields room was empty. Margaret was gone.


	11. Chapter 11

**You receive a wide-band automated message, "Welcome to our humble trade depot and shipyard! all are welcome, but try any funny business and our 152 automated turret satellites will tear your ship to shreds!"**

After hearing the cheerful voice echo harshly through the atmosphere of the ship, Felix opened up the store menu. Meredith wordlessly joined him in the piloting room.

For sale were the following: drone control, clone bay, hacking, defense drones, an automated re-loader, a scrap recovery arm, a weapon pre-igniter, and multiple crew members.

"There are many good options available here. It's a shame that we can't afford all of them," Meredith said.

"Yep, that's the biggest shame of the day, all right. Totally," Chase snarled sarcastically. "It's okay though, we can just buy new crew members as replacements!"

"Look, I am sorry, okay? It's completely my fault. I take responsibility for my mistake."

"Sorry isn't going to bring her back!"

"There's nothing we can do about it now, Chase. It happened, but we have to keep moving anyway," Felix pointed out.

"Fuck, is there no time to even talk about it? I mean, we can just pause the fucking game."

"Well, we're talking about it now, aren't we?"

"I recommend that we buy the scrap recovery arm, as well as the cloning bay," Meredith said.

"Okay, Meredith, what do those do?" Felix asked.

"Watch out, Felix, she might remember the details wrong and get us all… oh, I don't know... fucking killed!"

"Okay, that's enough out of you, Chase! What's done is done! We still have to work together as a team and get through this. We don't have time for your freakin' gibbering!" Felix yelled back.

"Fine. Fuck you guys."

"The… the… the scrap recovery arm increases the amount of scrap we get from every encounter," Meredith explained, beginning to tear up.

"Oh geez, Meredith..."

Meredith quickly wiped her eyes and looked at the floor. Felix had never seen her get emotional before. She didn't seem like the type.

"The cloning bay will make a clone of whoever dies and bring them back," she finished.

"Are you serious?" Chase interrupted. "Can we use it to bring back Margaret?"

"No, I'm sorry. It doesn't work retroactively."

"Fuck! You're telling me we were one jump away from preventing all of this?"

No one responded, but they all were thinking the same thing.

"You know what? Felix, I'm glad you're the captain. I don't know about Meredith anymore."

"Chase, as Captain, I order you to stop criticizing Meredith about this. We acted with the best source of information we had at the time, and there's nothing we could have done. Nothing we can do now either except keep moving and honor Margaret's wishes to stick together."

"Whatever."

Meredith made her way out of Felix's room and back to the weapons room. Felix purchased the scrap recovery arm, the cloning bay, and seven units of fuel. He then hit the JUMP button.

* * *

Felix unpaused without even reading the next message and began the battle. The enemy was a Pirate bomber with a Burst Laser II and a small laser gun. Meredith recognized the threat and fired a missile at their weapons system, damaging it. Her volley took out the rest of the weapons system. Next, she fired a laser volley at their shields, but all three shots missed. Not wanting to rely on chance and hope to dodge an enemy volley, she fired a missile and heavily damaged their shields. Her next volley took their shields out completely.

The pirate ship began to charge up their FTL drives in an attempt to escape. In response, Meredith fired at their piloting system and took it out. The pirates finally fired a successful return volley, which pierced the Kestrel's shields and destroyed its O2 system, starting a fire in the room as well.

"Pause! Umm, shit, what to do?" Chase asked.

Meredith looked at the situation.

"Chase, go to the room to the right of you. Felix, open the doors in the back of the ship and the ones leading to the O2 room. We'll drain the oxygen out, which will extinguish the flames," she commanded.

"Are you absolutely, 100% sure about that?" Chase asked.

"Yes, I am."

"Fine then."

After they unpaused, Meredith fired a final volley and destroyed the pirate ship.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 1, Missiles 1, Scrap 27_

After a few moments, the oxygen was completely evacuated from the oxygen and engine rooms, and the fires went out. On their screens, the oxygen-deprived rooms were red. The ship-wide oxygen percentage was dropping rapidly. Meredith paused the game.

"Okay, Chase, I need you to come with me to repair the oxygen system before the whole ship runs out of oxygen. Felix, open all the doors on the ship so we can get some air into the oxygen room."

Chase and Meredith met in the O2 room and began repairing. Every once in awhile, Chase would give Meredith a death glare. After seeing the first glare, she frowned and kept her head down.

After finishing the repairs, the two of them returned to their stations without saying a word. Meredith felt a weight being lifting off her without Chase's judging looks.

"Are you two done?" Felix asked.

"Yes we are."

"Great, let's keep moving."

Felix hit the JUMP button

* * *

 **Scans reveal a large asteroid field nearby. Short-range scanners may discover useful materials while we wait for the FTL to recharge.**

 **1\. Explore the asteroid field.**

 **2\. Too dangerous. We'll just wait for the FTL to charge.**

 **3\. (Scrap Recovery Arm) Attempt to mine the asteroids.**

"Blue options are always the best. The first option has some risk, but using a blue option usually means getting resources without a risk," Meredith explained.

"Usually?" Chase asked.

"Yes, usually. Unfortunately, I'm never 100% sure of anything…"

"Well, I trust you," Felix said as he selected option three.

 **You carefully extract as much usable material as possible from the nearest asteroids while waiting for the FTL to charge.**

 _Scrap 37_

"Well, that's good, at least," Chase admitted.

"This scrap recovery arm has been doing work," Felix said.

"It's one of the best augmentations in the game," Meredith stated.

Awkward silence. Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **You arrive at the distress beacon near a small asteroid belt and find a ship with pirate markings partially crushed between two large rocks. It must have been illegally mining the belt without proper equipment.**

 **1\. Try to dislodge the ship by shooting at the rocks.**

 **2\. Destroy and loot the ship. They're just pirates.**

"We'll get the most scrap if we destroy and loot the ship," Meredith explained.

"Looks like somebody should have bought a scrap recovery arm," Felix mused.

Felix hit option two.

"You decide the pirate is not worth saving and fire a few volleys into their hull. Before you can scrap the remains another pirate ship flashes on your radar. Perhaps they saw your deed, or perhaps they want to claim the spoils for themselves, but for whatever reason, they're charging weapons!"

"Looks like we got a Zoltan ship with a flak gun and an ion stunner on our hands," Meredith said.

"Can we handle it?"

"Possibly. It depends on how their weapons sync up. We can jump if we take too much damage."

While Meredith worked on taking out the Zoltan overshields, the enemy ship's weapons fired at the same time, and the metal pieces of flak tore through the Kestrel's shield. Luckily, the flak didn't damage any systems. However, the next enemy volley did a point of damage to the Kestrel's engine room. Meredith immediately joined Chase to help repair the engines.

It seemed that every other joint volley from the pirate ship would damage the Kestrel. Once again, the flak hit the engines. Meredith ended up having to run back and forth between the weapons room and the engine room to help patch it up. Fed up with repeatedly taking damage, Meredith unleashed missiles at the enemy ship in order to quicken the battle. This took out the enemy shields, and the pirate ship issued a surrender message.

Felix glanced at the terms and refused the surrender.

As if by karma for not offering mercy, the next pirate volley completely took out the Kestrel's weapons, preventing them from finishing off the pirate ship. By the time Meredith finished bringing the laser back online, an enemy volley had heavily damaged the engines room.

"Can we hurry this up already? This is starting to hurt!" Chase shouted.

Meredith quickly fired a missile and a final volley of lasers, finally destroying the pirate ship.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 1, Missiles 2, Scrap 24_

"We took a lot of damage from that fight. We're at 15 hull points," Felix announced.

"Yeah, plus I think I'm bleeding," Chase said as he moved to the medbay.

When he entered the room, he saw a large pod where the medical machine usually was.

"Is this new machine the cloning bay?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, the only time it heals us is each time we FTL jump, and it only heals 8 points of health at the moment. It only brings you back to full health if you die," Meredith explained.

"What? That fucking sucks, Meredith! This was a horrible idea! I don't want to get killed!"

"Well, with this machine, you can't ever stay dead. That means we won't lose anyone else…" Meredith said, getting quiet at the end.

"Hmph."

Chase returned to the engines room, and Felix pressed JUMP.

* * *

 **Once you arrive at the beacon you detect a Rebel scout assaulting a compound on a nearby desolate moon.**

 **1\. Engage the Rebel and rescue the space dock.**

 **2\. Avoid a fight.**

"We should fight them. Not only does that mean more scrap, but also we have a chance of buying a weapon from the store. We're in desperate need of additional weapons," Meredith explained.

"Sounds good, Commander."

Felix hit option one.

The enemy Rebel Fighter had a flak gun and a twin laser gun, as well a teleporter, the existence of which was confirmed when an enemy crew member teleported onto the Kestrel.

"Chase, come with me and we'll fight this guy," Meredith said.

"Sure."

The two of them entered the clone bay and began to fight the intruder. Chase engaged him in hand-to-hand combat while Margaret fired on him with her gun. Meanwhile, Felix directed the weapons to take out the enemy's shields.

"Holy shit, this hurts like hell! I'm going to fucking die!" Chase screamed as his health almost completely disappeared.

"Keep it up, he's almost down!" Meredith responded.

Chase was left with 12/100 health as the enemy was defeated.

"Back to your stations, guys!" Felix ordered.

Upon return Meredith fired a volley at the enemy's shields, taking them out. She then destroyed the enemy weapons, leaving the Rebel ship useless. The rest of the fight was a piece of cake.

 **The outpost hails you, 'Thank you! I don't know what we did to anger the Rebels, but they were ready to kill us. I'll show you our goods and patch up your hull.**

 _Scrap 26_

 _5 hull points repaired_

Felix quickly opened up the store menu and looked over the contents: drone control, crew teleporter, mind control, crew members, Zoltan shield bypass, a FTL recharge booster, and another scrap recovery arm.

"No weapons, Meredith."

She entered the room, looking pretty scratched up.

"Woah, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she responded as she examined the store options.

"Yeah, she's fine. You should take a look at me, I'm bleeding all over the place!" Chase said through the intercom.

"We should buy another scrap recovery arm. They stack, and we already know how much the first one helps. It would be nice to buy drone control here as well, but we can't ignore our own ship upgrades. We should use our remaining scrap to upgrade our engines and reactors," Meredith explained.

Felix agreed and upgraded the engines by one and their reactors by two. Their evade chance was now 40%. He used the rest of their scrap to repair the ship.

Chase watched as his keyboard transformed from an old-fashioned keyboard into a mechanical gaming keyboard, complete with backlit keys and a set of unnecessary programmable buttons along the top. He typed a few words in to test it out, and the keys made a satisfying and loud clacking sounds with each depression.

"Holy crap, this is pretty sweet," Chase exclaimed.

"Now we have enough reactor energy to keep our cloning bay constantly powered," Felix said.

"Finding another weapon is still a problem for us, but with these upgrades, there's a higher chance that we'll survive until we do. Until then, we will just have to rely on our missile cache to get us through the enemy two-layer shields," Meredith stated.

"Let's get a move on, then. Keep our fingers crossed."

Felix waited for Meredith to return to her station, and he hit JUMP.


	12. Chapter 12

**You arrive to find a small research station putting out a distress signal. There is no response to your hails.**

 **1\. Dock with the station and investigate.**

 **2\. Leave it alone.**

"I… I remember this one. We get attacked by three or four enemies. There's also a chance we lose a crew member. Although we do have a cloning bay now, Chase and I aren't at full health, so it's possible that the invaders will destroy the cloning bay before we can respawn," Meredith explained.

"Let's not then."

Felix hit option two and they jumped to the next beacon.

* * *

 **You arrive to find a pulsar dominating the view screen. You see a small silhouette pass in front of the star. Before you can ponder what it is, warning signals go off. It appears to be a ship in a firing trajectory!**

"Looks like we have a pirate Zoltan ship with an overshield. They're armed with a flak gun and a twin-shot laser gun," Meredith explained.

"What the hell is that in the background?" Chase asked.

A large white star floated ominously behind them.

"That's a pulsar. Read the description for us, Felix."

"You're close to a pulsar," Felix read. "Periodic waves of electromagnetic energy will disrupt your shields and drones."

"It'll completely wipe out our shields, but it will do the same to the enemy ship."

"Okay, let's do it."

The enemy ship fired its flak gun first, spraying metal shards at the Kestrel. It took out the Kestrel's shields, but did no damage to the hull. The enemy twin-lasers fired later, but they were absorbed by the Kestrel's recharged shields. Meredith returned fire, taking a chunk out of the Zoltan overshields, but not taking them out completely.

A warning flashed on the screen, saying "ION PULSE IMMINENT!" A few moments later, a large white ring pulsed outwards from the white star in the background. The pulse completely took out the Kestrel's engines and shields. However, the overshields absorbed the pulse, leaving the enemy's engines and shields perfectly normal.

"Brace yourselves!" Meredith shouted.

Meredith fired a volley, but the functioning enemy shields easily absorbed the shots. The pirate ship's response volley left a path of destruction along the Kestrel, damaging the shields and taking out the cloning bay and the O2 systems.

Meredith immediately rushed to the oxygen system to begin repairs.

"Okay, Felix. I want you to fire a volley at their weapons system as soon as the star pulse takes out their shields," she said while on the ground, screwing in the bolts.

"Affirmative."

The next giant pulse once again disabled the Kestrel's systems, but also the pirate ship's systems this time. On cue, Felix let loose a volley of lasers, totally disabling the enemy weapons system.

Meredith finished repairs on the oxygen system and returned to her station. She waited until the next pulse to fire and destroy the pirate shield system. The enemies couldn't repair their systems fast enough, and the Kestrel easily finished them off.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missiles 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 33_

"Good work, everyone," Felix announced.

"That yellow hull bar is kinda making me nervous," Chase said.

"I think we got enough scrap from that fight to repair our ship completely. It's okay."

The crew repaired their damaged systems and then Felix JUMPED to the next beacon.

* * *

 **You jump into a sector filled with civilian activity. You scan the various advertisement channels while waiting for your FTL to charge, and are intrigued by a grey-market shipwright.**

 **1\. Trade.** _Fuel 5, Missiles -2_

 **2\. Ignore.**

"Hmm… well missiles cost six scrap each, while fuel costs three scrap each. If we do the trade, we essentially gain 15 scrap at the cost of 12 scrap. This is a cost-efficient trade. Plus, we currently have nine units of fuel. We do need more at this point," Meredith analyzed.

"Okay then."

Felix hit option one and did the trade. They JUMPED to the exit beacon.

* * *

 **You've arrived at the Long-Range Beacon. When the FTL Drive is charged you can jump to the next Sector.**

 **You are immediately hailed by a mobile docking platform upon arrival, 'Welcome to Uncle Joe's Fix-it Shop! Need a tuneup? We got you covered!'**

 **1\. Inquire about their specialty**

 **2\. Decline.**

"We should inquire. Usually these merchants give good deals on upgrading our systems," Meredith explained.

Felix hit option one.

 **They offer to upgrade your Piloting subsystem in exchange for some scrap.**

 **1\. Decline**

 **2\. Agree to the exchange.** _Scrap -12_

"Normally I wouldn't upgrade the piloting subsystem, but 12 scrap is pretty cheap," Meredith mused.

"What does the upgrade do?" Felix inquired.

"Normally, if you ever leave the piloting system unmanned, our evade chance drops to 0%. With an upgraded piloting subsystem, our evade chance is only halved. Think of it as an autopilot," Meredith stated.

Felix didn't like the idea of letting an autopilot do his job piloting the ship, but his job was only hitting a button to roll dice, anyway. Furthermore, the idea of having 0% evade wasn't a pleasant one. If he ever needed to do repairs or assist the crew away from the piloting room, he didn't want to leave the ship like a fish in a barrel.

"Okay, let's do it."

 **You let their team on board and after a short time they finish their work.**

 _Scrap -12_

 _Upgraded the Piloting by 1_

Felix looked at the next jump sector: Mantis Homeworlds.

"Looks like our next sector is the Mantis Homeworlds. That doesn't sound fun," Felix said.

"They're going to be boarding us a great deal, that's true. On the bright side, usually Mantis ships have weaker weapons. As long as we can deal with the boarders, we should be fine," Meredith replied.

"Nothing to worry about. After all, you do have experience killing Mantises, isn't that right, Meredith?" Chase spat out, his voice dripping with anger.

"Please, Chase. Please forgive me for my mistake. What do I have to do to make this right?"

"You can bring her back, for starters."

"I can't do that…"

"Well then, I'll never forgive you for it. It's your fault, and that's something you'll have to live with."

"I know, I know… I deserve all of this."

"Shut up, you two! Didn't I say I didn't want to hear anything more about this?" Felix interrupted angrily.

Chase and Felix heard sniffles over the intercom.

"It's all my fault! I killed her!" Meredith wailed.

They had never heard her get so worked up before. Usually, she was calm and collected, even under criticism.

"Serves you right, you murderer," Chase said without thought.

Hearing this, Meredith began to sob uncontrollably.

Felix sat still in his chair, unsure of what to do. After Margaret's loss, he told himself that he wouldn't let it get to him. They had a mission, after all, and any distractions could lead to failure. If he, their captain, broke down too, the whole mission was at jeopardy. Instead, he had to maintain a stern outlook and encourage the crew to move on without looking back. There wasn't any time to bleed.

"Chase, shut up. Meredith, just let it out. We'll continue on after you're done," Felix stated. "You said in the beginning that there was a high chance that we would lose crew members. We all knew the risks, and there's nothing we can do about it now."

"That doesn't make what happened okay, Felix. Are you just going to say 'we can't anything about it' about everything bad that happens from now on?" Chase accused.

"We can't do anything except what we've been doing so far: playing smart and minimizing losses. We're helpless to the randomness of this game. There's absolutely nothing we can do about that. You know what? It was a random number generator that determined Margaret's death, not Meredith!" Felix responded.

"Oh yeah, don't blame the player, blame the game," Chase said sarcastically. "Look, I refuse to believe the fate of our lives depends on a giant crapshoot!"

"It's literally a crapshoot every time I roll the dice to dodge enemy fire. There's nothing we can do about it to change the system. We can only upgrade our systems and hope the extra dodge chance increases our odds of surviving!"

Felix noticed that he was getting too worked up about the whole thing and forced himself to calm down. He was supposed to be the anchor for the team. He cleared his throat.

"Commander Meredith… are you ready to move on?"

Her sobs had died down by then.

"Yes, I'm ready… Captain."

"Ensign Chase, save your emotions for after we beat this game. We need to concentrate now if we want to win."

"Fine, Captain Felix. But trust me, I have a lot to say to both of you after all of this is finished."

"Fine by me."

Felix hit the JUMP and they were launched to the next sector.

* * *

 **You've entered a poorly charted area of space that's known to be home to the Mantis. Ensure your hull plating is up to scratch and that you have enough fuel in the tank to make it through.**

Felix JUMPED to the next beacon.

* * *

 **There's nothing here but space debris and some uninhabitable planetoids.**

In the background was a red, Mars-like planet, and a red giant behind it. The first thing Felix thought of was the blood from Meredith's scratches. He shook the thought from his mind and pressed JUMP.

* * *

 **You detect and retrieve an escape pod floating nearby. You consider returning it to space when you learn it's Mantis.**

 **1\. Jettison the pod.**

 **2\. Pry it open.**

There was silence.

"Well, Meredith, what should we do?" Felix asked.

"Okay. We should pry it open. We might lose a crew member and have to fight a Mantis, but the cloning bay will respawn the person who is lost," Meredith explained quietly.

"Fine. You guys ready?" Felix asked.

He hit option two.

 **The Mantis inside considers you a messenger from the god of mercy and demands to join your crew.**

 _Ryan (Piloting)_

A Mantis appeared next to Felix. It looked at him with wild, hungry eyes, and immediately charged at him.

"God, not this again!" Felix yelled as he shielded himself with his arms.

"Wait, what? You're not a zombie. What's up with my voice?" the Mantis named Ryan asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Ryan, calm down and let us explain…"

"Hey, how do you know my name?"

Felix pointed to the crewlist on his screen.

"What? Where am I? Who are you?"

The four of them met in a common room. Felix explained to Ryan that they were in the game FTL, as well as the general premise of the game and their current situation.

"Oh, FTL? I've played the game a couple of times with a friend. I never really got the hang of it," Ryan explained.

"What were you doing before you got here?"

"I was just at home, playing some Dead Space, murderizing some necromorphs. To be honest, I'm glad that now I'm in a ship that's well-lit and not full of flesh-hungry space monsters."

"We do have some monsters," Chase muttered inaudibly, glancing at Meredith. She didn't notice.

"Ryan, I'm Captain Felix, and this is our crew: Ensign Chase and Commander Meredith."

"Nice to meet you all. Just a quick question: did the game assign the titles to you guys?"

"No, we divvied up the roles among ourselves."

"Oh, so you guys are fuckin' roleplayers!" Ryan said in a Swedish accent and a grin.

The rest of the crew looked at each other, confused.

"I'm just kidding, guys. I'm cool with it. What's my title gonna be?"

"Since you're new, you can be an Ensign like Chase."

"Fair enough."

"Ensign Ryan, your role on the Kestrel, which is the name of our ship, will be to man the shields. Come with me, I'll show you how it works."

Felix brought Ryan into the shields room.

"All you have to do is bang on these drums as fast as you can whenever our shields take damage."

"Sounds easy enough," Ryan replied, investigating the shield system. "Wow, it looks like the drums are kinda scuffed."

"Yeah… we've used it before."

Felix thought of Margaret and quickly switched topics to explaining the display on the shields system screen.

"Also, you can pause by pressing the spacebar on your wristband, and you unpause by saying 'unpause.'"

"This really is like a game then! So what happens when you die?"

"That won't be an issue, since we have a cloning bay that will make a copy of you if you die."

"Okay, but, just hypothetically, what if the cloning bay doesn't work?"

"Well… we don't know what happens when someone dies here. They could go back to living in real life, or they could… well, we don't know."

"So this is actually pretty serious then."

"Yeah."

"If you die in the game, then you die in real life!" Ryan said in a melodramatic tone.

"Hey, that might be the case. Anyways, all of us are playing to live, not just playing to win. If we just watch each other's backs, then I think we'll do just fine."

"Well said, Captain Felix. I'll do my best."

"Also, since you're a Mantis, you'll be the main person fighting the boarders in this sector. Mantises are good at fighting, after all."

"Is the combat like Dead Space where you have to chop off their limbs to do real damage to them?"

"Not really. It's more like you guys hitting each other until one of you dies."

"Ehh. I can handle that, I guess. A little less thrilling though."

"I'm glad you're handling the transition so well, Ensign."

"I play horror games all the time. Seeing myself in a giant Mantis body isn't the scariest thing in the world… Captain."

Felix chuckled politely.

"So, do you have any questions for me?"

"Yeah, I do," Ryan responded, leaning towards Felix and dropping his voice to a Mantis whisper. "Is the Commander single?"

Felix didn't chuckle at that.

"By the way, Ryan, everything we say is automatically projected through the intercom. Everyone can hear anything any of us says."

"Oh… well the question still stands, Commander!" Ryan responded, his face turning red.

"No comment," Meredith replied.

"Okay then. I'll just be here, manning the shields. Anyways, thanks for the introduction, Felix, Captain, you know."

"Anytime. If during battle if you're not sure about anything, feel free to pause and ask the crew for advice. There's no reason to take any unnecessary risks here when we have the power to stop time."

"Yep, no risks at all," Chase mocked.

"Shush, Ensign."

All of the crew returned to their appropriate stations and Felix hit the JUMP button.


	13. Chapter 13

**You notice a flurry of laser fire glance by the port window. The Mantis are upon you.**

"The enemy ship has a teleporter, as is expected from Mantis ships. It appears they also have a two-shot heavy laser gun, a one-shot heavy laser gun, and a small beam weapon. Two layers of shields as well," Meredith explained.

"That sounds rough. Everyone ready?" Felix asked.

"Yes. Ensign Ryan, I'll need your help to fight the invader," Meredith requested.

"No problem. Just give me the word."

Felix unpaused.

The enemy Mantis teleported into the cloning bay and began to spit acid at it.

"Ryan, move to the room above you. I'll be there shortly to help you fight," Meredith said.

"Got it. Let's do it."

Ryan entered the cloning bay to meet the enemy Mantis. They locked eyes and immediately began to scrap. Meredith joined in soon after and took on the enemy hand-to-hand. The size of the enemy Mantis didn't register in Ryan's head until he saw how small Meredith was in comparison to it. After taking some moderate damage, Meredith and Ryan managed to take the invader down.

"Damn, that was intense!" Ryan exclaimed. "You all right?"

"I'm fine. Return to the shields and let's finish the fight."

"Yes, ma'am!"

The two ships began to trade fire. Every once in awhile, Meredith would penetrate the enemy two-shields and hit a system, but they would easily repair it before the next volley. The Kestrel also easily dodged most of the Mantis' shots. This was going to be a long battle.

The Mantises came close to doing damage to the Kestrel a few times, but never managed to damage it. Every one in two of Meredith's vollies did one damage to the Mantis ship. Although it took a few minutes, this small advantage led to the Kestrel winning the fight in the end.

T **he ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 31_

Felix looked at their scrap total: 65. He had done the math before and calculated that they would have 59 scrap after the battle, but it appeared that the extra gains from the scrap recovery arms weren't accounted for in the after-battle message they were given. He informed the rest of the crew of this discrepancy.

"That sounds like good news," Chase said. "I was half-expecting you to tell us that we were losing extra scrap because of those arms instead."

"We did it!" Ryan shouted with glee.

The rest of the crew was surprised by Ryan's happiness.

"Aren't you guys pumped? We fought aliens and won!"

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome, I guess," Chase said.

"I guess we've already been doing it for awhile, so we're kind of used to it now," Felix explained.

"How many enemies have you fought so far?"

"Maybe twenty enemies? Meredith, do you have an exact number?" Felix inquired.

"I don't, but that sounds accurate enough."

"And we have plenty more to fight before we get to the end of the game. Okay, everyone ready?"

The crew was ready and Felix hit JUMP.

* * *

 **You're greeted by a rare sight: a Mantis ship that appears not to have noticed you.**

 **1\. Attack the ship.**

 **2\. Attempt to remain concealed.**

"Are we going to fight them?" Ryan asked.

Felix hit option one before even registering his question.

"Oh, yeah, that's our strategy, by the way. Take as many fights as we can get and collect as much scrap as we can," Felix explained to Ryan.

"The enemy ship has a two-shot laser weapon and a small beam weapon. They should not pose too much of a threat," Meredith analyzed.

"Open fire then!"

The Mantis ship fired first and both laser shots hit the Kestrel's shields, leaving the ship wide open to be cut by the enemy beam weapon. It only hit one room: the shields system.

Ryan quickly backed away from the red beam that was cutting across his room.

"Was that their beam weapon? Holy shit! Wait, what's up with the floor?"

He saw a series of bolts sticking out from the ground.

"The system has taken damage, triggering bolts to appear from the floor. Obtain a wrench from the wall and screw them back in to repair the system," Meredith commanded.

"Got it!"

Ryan managed to grab the giant wrench with his awkward claws and began to screw in the bolts. The wrench was definitely not designed for Mantises.

"Wow, could you screw any slower?" Chase shouted as he saw an enemy laser whizz right past the engine room.

"I'm trying! This body is making it hard, though!"

After a painfully long time, Ryan finally fixed the shields system, bringing the Kestrel back to two layers of shields. Then began the arduous task of taking down the enemy ship. Similar to the last battle, both ships exchanged vollies for a few minutes. Once again, the Kestrel came out on top, only taking one point of hull damage.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missiles 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 34_

"Okay, crew. 65 scrap plus 34 scrap should equal 99 scrap. Watch what happens to the total," Felix said.

After Felix cleared the notification, their scrap went up to 105.

"That's great… except it cost us 100 scrap to buy both those scrap recovery arms! How many battles is it going to take for them to pay themselves off?" Chase asked.

"Assuming we get 6 extra scrap from each battle… 17 battles, Chase," Meredith replied.

"Fine. You better hope we can last that long, then."

"Hey, what's with the negative attitude, man?" Ryan asked.

"Nothing. Never mind."

"Okay… just relax, Chase."

Chase snorted.

"Okay… everyone ready? I'm jumping now," Felix stated.

Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **Uncertain about what you'll discover at this beacon, you scan the surroundings. You detect several warnings on wide-band channels discouraging any violence in protected trade-space. Perhaps you can find some wares nearby.**

For sale were: drone control, medbay, cloaking, a Burst Laser III, a Halberd Beam, and a Breach II.

Meredith entered the piloting room.

"Hey there," Felix greeted with a small smile.

"Hi."

"Looks like we can buy weapons, just like you wanted," Felix pointed out.

"That's great! I recommend we buy the Halberd Beam. The Burst Laser III is way too expensive and requires too much power. The Breach II is excellent, but it will consume missiles. The Halberd Beam won't cost us any resources to fire, and has an acceptable power cost."

"Okay, sounds good."

Felix purchased the Halberd Beam.

"We should also repair our ship back to 20 hull points and buy a few units of fuel."

Felix did so and they were left with 16 scrap.

"All right, let's arm this Halberd Beam!" Felix shouted with enthusiasm.

"Actually, Captain, we can't do so yet. We need to upgrade our weapons system first, and to do that, we need more scrap."

"What, so this new weapon's dead weight?"

"Yes, for now."

"I'm not going to lie, that's disappointing."

"It is for me, too. I was looking forward to firing a new weapon."

"Don't worry, get yourself back to your station, and we'll get you that scrap ASAP, Commander."

"Affirmative."

Meredith returned to her post and Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **Another unmanned ship patrols this area. You prepare the ship for combat.**

"The enemy ship has no shields, but it is equipped with a dual lasers, an ion weapon, a small beam weapon, and a mind control system," Meredith explained.

"Mind control? Does that do what I think it does?" Chase asked.

"Yes, it takes over the mind of one of our crew members. This not only prevents them from manning their station, but also causes them to attack the system. Prepare yourselves."

"It's not permanent, is it?"

"No, it's not. It'll last for about eight seconds, at the most."

"Okay, let's do this."

Felix unpaused.

"Oh god, what the hrlghglRAAAWR!" Ryan screamed.

The crew saw Ryan turn feral and begin to tear apart the shields system.

"Oh shit! But we need those shields!" Chase yelled.

"Felix, I need you to re-route the power from our laser and missiles to the Halberd Beam. Since the enemy ship doesn't have shields, our beam weapon has a distinct advantage," Meredith commanded.

"Got it."

Meredith began to charge up the Halberd beam. All the while, Ryan was slowly whittling away at the shields system, bringing the Kestrel back down to only one layer of shielding. Luckily, the shots from the enemy ship largely missed.

"My turn."

Meredith fired the powerful Halberd Beam at the enemy ship, tearing across four of the enemy systems. The swath destroyed the enemy mind control, weapons, and piloting systems, while also leaving the enemy at one hull point.

"Switch power back to the Burst Laser II and let's finish this," Meredith said without skipping a beat.

"What. The. Fuck. That beam was fucking amazing!" Chase exclaimed.

"Huh? What's happening?" Ryan said, coming out of his stupor.

Ryan saw the damage that he had caused and began to repair the shields. Felix re-routed power to their laser weapon, and Meredith fired the last volley to destroy the enemy ship.

 **The ship breaks apart and you feel relief in the knowledge that you will hopefully still be one step ahead of the fleet.**

 _Fuel 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 22_

"We need more of that beam weapon in our lives. Why aren't we funding this?" Chase asked.

"That's what we're going to do as soon as we get enough scrap," Meredith responded.

"Hey guys, sorry about the whole destroying our shields thing…" Ryan mumbled.

"It's fine. You only did one damage to the shields, anyway. Which is actually kind of surprising, since you're a Mantis and all," Felix said.

"So I'm a bad Mantis?"

"At least you're not a psycho Mantis!" Chase said.

"Yes, it is quite fortunate that he did not kill one of our crew when he first joined us in that random event," Meredith stated.

"Psycho Mantis? Anyone?" Chase half-pleaded.

"What?"

"Never mind."

"Okay, let's move on then."

Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **A Rebel ship approaches cautiously. "Personally," says the captain, "I'd have stuck with the Federation. But I'm a soldier, sir, and I'm no use without a war to fight. Raise your shields!"**

"War… war never changes," Chase stated melodramatically.

"I… I got that reference," Ryan said.

"Anyways… the enemy Rebel ship has dual lasers, a small beam weapon, a beam drone, and an anti-combat drone. They pose a medium threat, so I will be using missiles this fight," Meredith explained.

"Affirmative, Commander. Engage!"

Felix unpaused.

Meredith let a missile loose directly into the Rebel ship's shields system, allowing her laser volley to damage their weapons system as well. This disabled the enemy's laser gun right before it could fire, preventing a potential beam-related catastrophe.

However, the Rebels repaired quickly, managing to bring their shields back online before Meredith's next volley. She decided to use another missile, but this once sailed casually past the enemy ship instead of into it. Their repowered shields absorbed most of Meredith's laser volley, but one rogue shot got through and hit their weapons, once again preventing the Rebels from getting a volley off.

A few more vollies and missiles later, and the Rebel ship was suing for peace.

"Meredith, they're offering 3 fuel, 3 missiles, and 20 scrap. Is that a good deal?" Felix asked.

"Normally, I would consider it a good deal. However, we currently need scrap to bring our Halberd Beam online, so we must value scrap higher. Decline the offer."

Felix hit option two and Meredith destroyed the Rebel ship.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missiles 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 30_

Felix hit option two and Meredith destroyed the Rebel ship. They collected the resources and Felix hit JUMP.

* * *

 **You fancy you see something in the shadow of the beacon, but all remains still.**

"Woah, that looks so cool!" Ryan exclaimed, referring to the Earth-like planet in the background and the red giant behind it.

"Yeah, it is pretty cool. Until you've seen the same thing a hundred times. Then you realize that this is just a game," Chase replied.

"Well, that's a depressing way to look at it."

"Trust me, kid, it comes with experience."

"Okay, we're moving on," Felix said, losing his patience. "Looks like a distress beacon coming up. Let's check it out."

He hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **You locate a nearby human mining colony where an unknown disease has spread virulently. They are setting up a quarantine to contain it but a riot has broken out.**

 **1\. Send in your crew to help control the crowds.**

 **2\. Ignore their request and move on.**

"Meredith, what should we do?" Felix asked.

"I think we have a chance of losing a crew member if we help out. Specifically, we can't bring our crew member back with the cloning bay if he or she gets infected," Meredith explained.

"Okay, let's get out of here then," Felix responded.

"So we're just going to leave those people to die?" Ryan inquired.

"Oh, a new guy question," Chase sighed.

"There are some things we live by on the Kestrel, Ensign. One, better them than us. Two, it's just a game. We're the only real people here. Everyone else is an NPC," Felix reasoned.

"Okay, sounds reasonable enough, Captain."

Felix hit option two.

 **Unfortunately your mission is too important and you're not willing to risk your crew. You prepare to move on.**

"Ain't that the truth..."

Felix JUMPED them to the next beacon.


	14. Chapter 14

**A ship refueling station is stationed at this beacon. We can purchase fuel here.**

 **1\. Buy 6 fuel for 12 scrap.** _Fuel 6, Scrap -12_

 **2\. Buy 3 fuel for 6 scrap.** _Fuel 3, Scrap -6_

 **3\. Buy 1 fuel for 2 scrap.** _Fuel 1, Scrap -2_

 **4\. Ignore the station.**

"Since we're low on fuel and this is a better deal than at the stores, we should buy 6 fuel for 12 scrap," Felix declared.

He felt that it was about time to make a decision on his own rather than depend on Meredith to make all the decisions for them.

"I agree with you, Felix. Excellent choice, Captain," Meredith replied.

Felix smiled as he hit option one.

 **Thank you for your business.**

 _Fuel 6, Scrap -12_

Felix hit the JUMP button, satisfied with himself.

* * *

 **A small rebel research station overlooks a pulsating star. Before you can react a Rebel ship spots you and moves in to attack.**

"Captain Felix, do you care to do the analysis on this ship?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah, I'll give it a shot, Commander."

He looked over the enemy ship, recognizing their weapons and analyzing their systems.

"Looks like we got a three-shield enemy Rebel ship. They have two heavy laser guns, a dual laser, and a teleporter," Felix explained.

"Yes, and this would be quite the formidable threat if not for the-"

"If not for the pulsar in the background. That'll let us fire on them without their three layers of shields when it pulses," Felix finished.

"That was impressive, Captain! I'm proud of you," Meredith said.

"Just trying to become a better captain for my crew. Everyone ready? Let's do it."

Felix unpaused.

"Felix, re-route power to the Halberd Beam. It'll do more damage since they'll have no shields," Meredith commanded.

"Sure thing."

The Rebel ship fired one laser before the pulse, allowing the Kestrel's shields to absorb the shot. Two enemy boarders teleported into the Kestrel, attacking Meredith in the weapons room.

"Chase and Ryan! I need you in here, now!" Meredith ordered.

The two of them dashed to the weapons room to protect Meredith. However, after the pulse erupted and took down the Kestrel's shields, the enemy fired the rest of their lasers. They hit various parts of the Kestrel, doing significant hull damage, but only damaging the piloting system by one point.

While Meredith was busy fighting the invaders, Felix aimed the Halberd Beam. He hit pause first.

"Meredith! How exactly do I aim this thing?"

"Just drag the laser across as many essential enemy systems as you can. It does two damage per room it hits."

She quickly glanced at the screen, past the arm of her frozen attacker.

"Try and hit their weapons, engine, shields, and O2 in one beam."

Felix dragged the targeting beam across the enemy ship.

"Okay, got it. Ready?"

"Yeah, let's kill these guys!" Ryan yelled.

Felix unpaused, just then realizing that the enemy had one layer of shield up.

"Oh shit! The beam won't do damage!"

Somehow, the giant red beam still did do damage as it tore its way through the Rebels' four systems. This took out the remaining Rebel shield layer and disabled some of their weapons. However, they fired their remaining weapons in a return volley and both heavy lasers hit an empty room on the Kestrel.

Chase, Ryan, and Meredith finished killing the intruders and rushed back to their stations. Meredith let loose another beam across the Rebel ship, and they called for surrender. As usual, Felix declined the offer. Meredith finished the job.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missiles 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 29_

They collected the resources and Felix hit the JUMP button right before the next pulse hit them.

* * *

 **You've arrived at the Long-Range Beacon. when the FTL drive is charged you can jump to the next Sector.**

 **You inform a nearby station of your flight from the Rebels. They offer to outfit your ship with a weapon and wish you well.**

 _Scrap 22 Hermes Missile_

"Wow, finally some good luck," Chase said.

"And this means that we have enough scrap to equip our Halberd Beam for good," Felix added.

"Do that. Right now," Chase demanded.

Felix did so and armed the Halberd Beam with the Burst Laser II.

"Captain, can I explain to you our new tactics with the beam weapon?" Meredith asked.

"Go ahead, Commander."

"As you know, shields absorb beams completely. To be more specific, each layer of shield reduces the damage dealt by beams by one. That is why our Halberd Beam was able to do damage through the enemy shields in that last fight. Our beam does two damage, and their one layer shield could only reduce its damage by one," Meredith explained.

"Oh, that explains a lot."

"Our new tactic is now to let our lasers take down the enemy shields momentarily, and then fire our Halberd Beam while they're still recharging."

"Ah, that makes sense. Got it."

"I know that I handle the weapons, but if I am ever pre-occupied with fighting boarders or something similar, you'll know what to do now."

"Thank you, Commander. That was very helpful."

"My pleasure, Captain."

"Okay, you two, let's keep moving," Chase said.

"Fine. Okay, Meredith, it looks like we have two options: Abandoned Sector, or Mantis Controlled?"

"Did… did you say Abandoned Sector?"

"Yes I did."

"Let's go to the Mantis Controlled Sector instead."

"Why? What's wrong with the Abandoned Sector?"

"It's full of Lanius. The Lanius have very powerful ships equipped with hacking and mind control. The Lanius themselves don't breathe oxygen and suck the air out of any room that they stand in. Mantis are more predictable and pose less of a threat," Meredith explained.

"Hey, I don't have a problem with fighting creepy aliens. The scarier, the better!" Ryan boasted.

"Remember, we're playing to avoid unnecessary risks, Ensign. We'll go to the Mantis Sector then," Felix decided.

"Okay, fine."

Felix hit the JUMP button and they entered Sector Five.

* * *

 **You've entered a poorly charted area of space that's known to be home to the Mantis. ensure your hull plating is up to scratch and that you have enough fuel in the tank to make it through.**

"Let's do it."

Felix JUMPED to the next beacon.

* * *

 **You arrive in an asteroid belt to discover that a Rebel automated-scout has been stationed here. Prepare for a fight!**

Eager to test the power of their new weapon loadout, Felix unpaused immediately. Meredith paused shortly thereafter.

"Captain, let's not get too excited now. Tell me your analysis, and then we can shoot at them all you want," Meredith said in an unusual tone.

"Sure. They have a small laser gun and a… what looks to be a Halberd Beam. They also have two beam drones circling our ship."

"Good. Now we can fight, Captain."

Felix unpaused.

Asteroids pummeled both ships, but at a slow enough rate for both ships to recharge between each strike. Luckily, Meredith managed to fire their beam weapon first. The Burst Laser II brought down the two layers of enemy shields, and the powerful beam destroyed three of their systems, including their weapons system. The enemy Halberd Beam was taken offline. All it took was another laser and beam combo from the Kestrel to destroy the auto-scout completely.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 1, Missiles 1, Scrap 32_

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Chase shouted. "This new weapon combo is the shit."

"Yes, but it's still important that we play it safe, of course," Meredith replied.

"Let's keep going," Felix said.

* * *

 **You recognize the ship as a well-known slave trader. He hails you and offers you "laborers" for cheap.**

 **1\. Buy one slave and free them to join your crew.** _Scrap -33 Banks Engines_

 **2\. Attack the slaver scum.**

 **3\. Ignore the slaver and continue on your way.**

"Just like that other slaver we encountered, we can get a free slave from them by defeating them in combat, even though they're offering Banks, a Mantis with engines expertise. They have a heavy laser gun, an ion gun, and a Hermes missile launcher. The only real threat will be the missile launcher, but hopefully we can take it out before they fire," Meredith explained.

"Okay then. Let's kick some slaver ass!" Felix yelled.

He selected option two and unpaused.

The enemy ship fired their ion gun and lasers at the Kestrel, disabling their shields. Meredith fired a return volley, but only one shot hit the enemy shields. She decided to fire the Halberd Beam anyway, dealing one damage to four of the enemy systems each. This wasn't enough to take out their Hermes missile launcher, however. It launched a huge missile, three times as long as an Artemis missile and twice as thick.

"Watch out! Felix, roll low!" Meredith screamed as the giant missile sailed straight towards the weapons system.

Felix slammed the GENERATE button. 35 popped up as the missile grazed the top of the Kestrel but otherwise left it unharmed.

Meredith took a sigh of relief.

"Time for payback," Meredith growled.

She fired a volley of lasers to take down their shields and let the Halberd Beam rip through the enemy ship. As soon as it touched one of the enemy rooms, they sent a surrender message:

 **We surrender! take one of our slaves as tribute; if you destroy us they'll all die anyway!**

 **1\. Accept their offer** _Ferry Shields, Combat_

 **2\. Surrender is not an option.**

"Looks like Ferry's a human, proficient in shields and combat. Sounds like a good deal," Meredith stated.

"Yeah, let's get him," Felix responded, hitting option one.

Immediately, the man named Ferry appeared next to Felix and collapsed to the floor.

"Owww, my head..."

"Welcome to the Kestrel, the finest ship in FTL. I'm Captain Felix," he announced, holding his hand out to Ferry.

Ferry looked up.

"Hi… where am I exactly?"

Felix and the rest of the crew explained the concept of FTL and their current situation to Ferry.

"This is a lot to take in…" he said, looking around.

"Don't worry, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask us at any time. Just pause and ask away," Felix replied. "Anyways, welcome to the crew, Ensign Ferry."

"Thanks."

"Which reminds me… I think it's time that you got a promotion," Felix stated, looking at Chase. "Can't have you stay an Ensign forever, being an original member of the crew, after all. I hereby pronounce you Lieutenant Chase!"

"Ha! Hell, it's about time!" Chase yelled happily, but his expression suddenly changed. "So I'm a lieutenant, eh? Okay, I'll try to live up to the title…"

"Captain, since Ensign Ferry is already proficient in shields, I suggest that he take Ensign Ryan's place at the shields system," Meredith stated, not looking at the subdued Chase.

"Ensign Ferry, do you have any experience with drums?"

"Not real drums. I play a lot of Rock Band though. Does that count?"

"That's perfect. Ferry and Ryan, come with me to the shields room."

Once there, Felix and Ryan explained to Ferry how drumming recharged the ship's shields.

"I have a question, Captain: what will I be doing now?" Ryan asked.

"That's a good question. Meredith?"

"Now that the four essential systems are being manned, we have the luxury of being able to man one of the two subsystems: the doors and the sensors. I recommend that Ensign Ryan mans the doors subsystem. While he mans the subsystem, our doors will be upgraded to Blast Doors, which impede fire spread and intruder movement," Meredith explained.

"Okay, so I'm going to be a glorified doorman?" Ryan asked, chuckling.

"That title is quite accurate in this scenario," Meredith replied with a giggle.

"Plus, with you manning the doors and not an essential system, you'll be able to freely roam the Kestrel to engage any intruders that board us," Felix pointed out.

"Whatever you say, Captain. I'll protect these doors with my life."

Ryan wandered into the doors room and looked at the control panel. As he settled his claws on the oversized keyboard, the screen turned on and he saw a familiar sight.

"Oh my god, is this Five Nights at Freddy's?"

"Wait, you mean that scary game?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah, it looks almost exactly like it. Oh, I get it…"

"What's up?"

"The two steel doors that keep the monsters out of the safe room in Five Nights at Freddy's usually stay closed until you open them. In this version, on this console, they only stay closed for a few seconds. I have to be here and press the close button for both doors every few seconds," Ryan explained.

"That actually doesn't sound too difficult," Meredith pointed out.

"Yeah, and it looks like there isn't a power bar that limits how long the doors can stay closed. Hopefully, there aren't any killer animatronics in this version either," Ryan replied with a grin.

"All right, now that we got that worked out, battle stations, everyone. We're moving on," Felix commanded.

The crew of the Kestrel returned to their stations and Felix JUMPED to the next beacon.


	15. Chapter 15

**When they see the Mantis warship waiting in ambush at your intended coordinates, your crew is relieved to note you've jumped someway off the mark.**

 **1\. Attack the ship.**

 **2\. Attempt to remain concealed.**

"Let's do it," Felix said.

"Wait, are we not going to remain concealed?" Ferry asked.

"Nope. In this game, the best approach is to take every fight we can get and gather as many resources as possible."

"Can we win though?"

"Sure we can."

"What happens if we lose?"

"Ensign, don't worry about it. We've made it this far. We've won tens of battles already. We know how the game works."

"Okay… if I get shot, will it hurt?"

"Yes, it'll hurt. We have a cloning bay though. It'll bring you back if you die. Any more questions?"

"I guess we didn't explain the game well enough, huh?" Chase said.

"To be fair, I had some of those questions too," Ryan mentioned.

"Whatever. You new guys will pick up the gist of it through experience," Felix responded.

He hit option one.

The red enemy Mantis ship had a Burst Laser II and a small laser gun. They also had a teleporter and a cloning bay, meaning they could probably send an endless stream of boarders.

"Ensign Ryan, get ready to hunt down the incoming boarder," Felix commanded.

"You got it, Captain. I'll tear 'em a new one."

As the battle started, the enemy Mantis materialized next to Meredith.

"He's in here! Help me out, Ryan!" Meredith shouted over the intercom.

"I'll save you!"

"I said help, not save."

Together, Ryan and Meredith took down the enemy Mantis. However, Ryan lost half of his health in the process.

The enemy ship fired their barrage of lasers at the Kestrel, but the Kestrel's 40% evade chance prevented the shots from even getting close to the hull. Meredith brushed off the dust from her shoulder and took control of the weapons. She fired the laser and beam combo, dealing significant damage to four enemy rooms and leaving the enemy ship at two hull points. All it took was another volley of lasers for Meredith to take out the crippled Mantis ship.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 3, Missiles 2, Scrap 36_

"So much easier with this Halberd Beam. Good work, Commander," Felix said.

"I'll say," Ryan followed up, not talking about the Halberd Beam.

"Are you guys okay? You're injured!" Ferry exclaimed.

"We're fine, Ferry. Relax," Ryan responded.

"Okay, if you say so. But is there any way to heal in this game?"

"The cloning bay will automatically heal us a bit every time we FTL jump," Meredith answered.

"Speaking of which, return to your stations. We're going to do just that," Felix said.

After everyone settled back in, Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **For once, you see the Mantis before they see you.**

 **1\. Attack the ship.**

 **2\. Attempt to remain concealed.**

"More like for twice," Chase remarked.

"So we're going to fight these guys too? That ship is huge!" Ferry yelled.

Indeed, it was the largest Mantis ship they had ever seen before. It was at least three times as large as the previous pincer-shaped Mantis ships. It looked like a giant red middle finger sticking out with the index and ring fingers folded down serving as its two wings. It was equipped with an intimidating Hermes missile launcher and a Burst Laser II.

"Look at the load-out on that ship, Commander," Felix said.

"And it could have even more weapons. It most likely has a teleporter, too."

"Hey, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, right?" Chase stated arrogantly.

"The Rebel Flagship is even bigger than this one. Consider this one practice," Meredith said.

"Okay… let's attack!"

Felix hit option one.

"We got two enemy Mantis! They're trying to enter the shields room!" Ryan shouted.

"What? Oh no, please no!" Ferry screamed. "I can hear them!"

Meredith paused.

"Okay, we're going to try a new tactic. Captain Felix, open the all the doors from the outside to the room that the enemy Mantises are in. We're going to asphyxiate them. Ensign Ryan, hold the doors fast. Ensign Ferry, get ready to run into the sensors room behind you as soon as the Mantises break into your room. Got it, everyone?" Meredith ordered.

"Got it, Commander," Felix responded.

"Understood," Ryan said.

"What? Okay…!" Ferry gasped.

The enemy fired a volley of lasers, but the Kestrel's shields absorbed the brunt of the fire. Meredith returned fire, but only one shot impacted the enemy shields. She groaned as she fired the Halberd Beam afterwards, managing to penetrate their remaining layer of shield and doing light damage to their engine and weapons. This disabled the enemy Hermes missile, but not before it launched its enormous missile straight at the Kestrel's engines.

It was a direct hit. The missile did three points of damage to the Kestrel's hull and engines, almost completely disabling it. It also tore a hole open in the floor, which sucked the oxygen from the room. Chase lost almost half his health from the explosion.

Chase paused.

"Looks like there's a hull breach in my room. It looks like I can screw the floor panel back in place to cover the hole though. God, that hurt," Chase explained.

Meanwhile, the two enemy Mantises had torn their way through the shields room and into the sensor room. They noticed the oxygen being drained from the air and continued to push towards Ferry. When Ferry had first saw the two bloodthirsty Mantises, he cried out in terror and ran into the sensor room. He cried out even more when they broke into the sensor room. Now, they were threatening to break into the next room where he was hiding.

"This isn't working! This isn't working!" Ferry yelled.

The enemy Mantises had only taken a quarter of their health in damage from lack of oxygen. They were simply breaking through the doors too fast. Once they broke into Ferry's room again, he joined Ryan in the doors system. Instead of pursuing Ferry, the Mantises decided to tear down the room to the piloting system.

"They're after me now! I think we'll have to fight them!" Felix shouted as they Mantises entered his room, hungry for flesh.

The enemy ship fired its Burst Laser II at the Kestrel. The shots broke through the shields and a laser hit the Kestrel's shields room, bringing their shields down to one layer.

Meredith paused.

"Ensign Ryan, help Captain Felix fight off the invaders. Captain Felix, close all the doors so we don't lose any more oxygen. Ensign Ferry, return to the shields room, grab a wrench off the walls, and screw in the bolts that are popping out of the floor. Lieutenant Chase, keep repairing the engines. I'll deal with the enemy ship," Meredith commanded.

"Affirmative!" the rest of the crew replied in unison.

After a near-deadly scuffle, Felix and Ryan almost killed the enemy boarders. Before they could land the killing blow, the enemy Mantises teleported back to their ship. Meredith returned fire, this time completely taking down the enemy shields, which allowed her Halberd Beam to deal maximum damage to the enemy's systems. One more volley would bring them down.

"Everyone, return to your stations!" Felix ordered.

Meredith fired one more volley and destroyed the huge Mantis ship, but not before an enemy Engi and Mantis teleported onto the Kestrel.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 3, Drone Part 1, Scrap 35_

"Good work, everyone. We made it- Oh! there are still enemies on the ship!" Felix exclaimed. "Everyone, to the weapons room!"

The two boarders were ambushing Meredith, but Chase, Ryan, and Ferry entered the room to make it a four-versus-two. They managed to take down the invaders, but the fight left Chase at 3/100 health. He had gaping wounds everywhere and was trickling with blood.

"I'm… fucking dying. It hurts so fucking much," Chase gasped.

"I'm sorry, but the best option here is to kill you and bring you back at full health," Meredith said to him.

"You'd… like that wouldn't you…. Meredith?" Chase struggled to say as he spat out blood. "Okay, fine… anything to stop the pain."

"You're going to kill him? Are you sure the cloning bay works?" Ferry asked.

"Yeah, Meredith… are you… sure it works?" Chase repeated.

"I'm sure, Lieutenant."

"Fine. Kill me then."

"Go to the left-most room on the ship. We'll vent the oxygen and you'll die almost instantaneously."

"You better be fucking right."

Chase dragged himself to the death chamber and Felix opened up the door to the cold space outside. The room lost all of its oxygen and Chase died all in the span of one second. He cried out in pain, collapsed to the floor, and disappeared.

Immediately after his death, an icon of Chase appeared on Felix's screen, directly above the cloning bay icon. The icon's background was black, but was slowly filling up with green. Upon completion, Chase appeared once again in the cloning bay.

"I'm back, bitches! 100 percent!" Chase shouted.

The rest of the crew sighed in relief.

"Now, you may feel a slight loss in skill level. This is a completely normal side-effect of cloning," Meredith explained.

"Great, whatever. Let's get a move on," Chase replied as he strolled back to the engine room.

Everyone returned to their stations after fixing the engines and Felix pressed JUMP.

* * *

 **You spot a small rebel ship nearby. It seems to have been re-fitted for transport rather than combat. It does not seem to want to engage you and your ship.**

 **1\. Demand the surrender of their goods.**

 **2\. Avoid the ship.**

"Today is not their lucky day," Felix said as he pressed option one.

 **You prepare to secure their cargo by force. They look like they don't want to fight. They are trying to escape.**

"The enemy Rebel ship is equipped with a small beam weapon, a laser gun, and three drones: a defense drone, an anti-combat drone, and a combat drone. They have a hacking system, which may be a threat. Most importantly, they have three layers of shielding. It will be difficult to penetrate, but it is possible," Meredith explained.

"All right, crew, let's do it."

Felix hit unpause.

The Rebel ship fired a hacking drone, which connected itself to the Kestrel's sensor system.

"Excellent. The sensor system is one of the most useless systems on this ship. We do not need it anyway," Meredith commented.

The enemy ship fired their weapons randomly. Their laser gun missed, their combat drone kept missing, and their beam weapon was useless against the Kestrel's shields. Meredith returned fire, penetrating all three of the enemy's shields, allowing their beam to wreak havoc on the enemy piloting, drone control, and shields systems.

"That'll keep them from running away for now," Meredith said.

Just as she was preparing to fire another laser and beam combo, the enemy's weapons aligned perfectly: a laser shot hit the weapons room, powering down the Halberd Beam.

"Damn!" Meredith shouted.

Meanwhile, the enemy ship's crew had completed repairs on their piloting system and continued to charge their FTL drives. Felix fired the Burst Laser II at their piloting system while Meredith worked to repair the damage. The three shots broke through the enemy two layers of shields and hitting the enemy piloting once, disabling it again. Felix fired once again, but this time all three layers of enemy shields came up, each one consuming one laser shot. The enemy FTL continued to charge.

Meredith glanced over and noticed that Ryan had entered the room of his own volition and was next to her, furiously trying to help her screw in the bolts.

"Fancy… seeing… you here," Ryan grunted.

They finished repairs and the Halberd Beam began to charge, slowly.

"The only way to damage the enemy is to take down the three layers of shields with our lasers and then use the beam to hit their piloting."

Moments felt like hours as the Halberd Beam charged. Just as it was almost fully charged, the words "JUMP IMMINENT" appeared on the display over the enemy Rebel ship.

"Meredith! Fire now! Do it!" Felix commanded.

She obliged and let loose a volley of lasers. It took down two layers of shields.

"Good enough," Meredith muttered with a grim smile.

She fired the Halberd Beam, and it penetrated the remaining layer of shields, hitting three enemy rooms. This was enough to finish off the Rebel ship right before it FTL jumped away.

"Got it! Woo!" Meredith shouted with glee.

 **The ship was carrying military supplies. You pick up anything that looks salvageable from the debris.**

 _Fuel 1, Missiles 2, Scrap 54_

"Damn! What a haul! What a fucking haul!" Chase roared.

"Now THAT is reward I like to see," Felix said.

"We barely got them…" Ferry pointed out.

"But we got them! That's all that matters," Ryan responded.

"We now have enough scrap to upgrade our shields to three layers," Meredith announced.

"Let's do that."

Felix upgraded the shields to three layers. As soon as the third layer finished charging, the shield surrounding the Kestrel grew thicker and even deeper blue.

"Let's see them hurt us now!" Chase said. "Yeah, yeah, and before you say anything, Meredith... yes, we still have to play it safe, anyways."

"Exactly what I was going to say," she replied. "You've learned well."

"Okay, let's keep it up, then. Onwards!"

Felix JUMPED to the next beacon.


	16. Chapter 16

**You come across an asteroid mining colony. They message you immediately, saying, "Greetings. Our supplies of mining explosives have run out ever since the Rebels blockaded this system. Do you have any extra explosives?"**

 **1\. (Missile Weapon) Offer to solve their problem by launching a missile.**

 **2\. Give them the requested 5 missiles.**

 **3\. Give them 15 missiles.**

 **4\. Decline.**

"Looks like the first option is a blue option. Blue is best, right?"

"Yes. See how it goes," Meredith said.

Felix hit option one.

 **"While I appreciate your enthusiasm, we have certain protocols for the use of explosives around the workplace. Launching a military grade weapon into our mines isn't exactly what I would call, 'union-friendly.'"**

 **1\. Give them the requested 5 missiles.**

 **2\. Give them 15 missiles.**

 **3\. Decline.**

"Hah, looks like they understand the concept of understatements," Ryan said.

"What do you think about this, Commander?" Felix asked.

"With our current set-up, it is unlikely that we'll ever use missiles again. Furthermore, more ships at this stage in the game will have defense drones that render missiles useless. We should give them 15 missiles and get something good in return," Meredith explained.

"Sounds reasonable enough."

Felix hit option two.

 **"Wow. This will help our efforts considerably. Let me see what I can scrounge up to offer you.' They deliver some scrap and have their team try to repair part of your hull."**

 _Missiles -15, Scrap 36_

 _5 hull points repaired_

"That… wasn't exactly the best deal, but if we weren't going to use the missiles anyway, this was better than just having them remain on our ship with no value," Meredith reasoned.

"Okay, whatever you say, Commander," Felix responded.

Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **You arrive to find yourself extremely close to a star. You receive a message from a pirate ship, "I'm glad you arrived; our ship is damaged and we were getting desperate… I hope you don't mind if we take yours." Hostiles detected on board our ship!**

 _Intruders on board_

Taking up half of the background was a humongous red star. Felix read the new notification icon out loud:

"You're too close to a star. Solar flares will light the ship on fire. Shields will reduce the effect."

"Captain, try to use the doors system and asphyxiate them," Meredith said.

"We tried that with the Mantises before. That didn't work so well," he replied.

"These two invaders are human. It'll take them longer to break through our doors."

"Okay, I'll give it another shot, Commander."

Felix opened the doors to the cold space outside, draining the oxygen from the room the two pirates were standing in. Panicked, they shot at the door to the O2 system. However, after breaking into the O2 room, they were met with another closed door. All the while, the broken door behind them caused all the air in the O2 room to leave as well. Before long, the invaders were dead at the doorstep of the next room.

"Boarders neutralized."

Just then, a bright flash of white consumed everyone's eyesight, and two fires appeared on the Kestrel.

"Captain, drain the oxygen from the rooms on fire using the doors system!" Meredith commanded.

Felix did so, venting the oxygen out of those rooms and strangling out the fires like he had done with the two pirates.

"All right, back to your stations, everyone. Let's get out before another solar flare hits," he said.

Felix hit JUMP as soon as everyone was ready.

* * *

 **Identifying a Mantis trading post ahead, you signal them so that your approach won't be taken as a threat. The leader hails you: "You have scrap? Quickly, come dock before the warriors see you."**

Upon seeing the store, Meredith made her way to Felix's room.

For sale at the store were drone control, medbay, cloaking, and crew members.

"Cloaking would be nice, but we don't have enough scrap for it, even if we sell both our missile launchers. We don't need the medbay, and the drone control comes with a combat drone, which isn't the defense drone that we want instead," Meredith explained.

"So just fuel and repairs, Commander?"

"We should sell our missile launchers too, regardless. The extra scrap can be put towards upgrading the engine and other systems."

"Sounds good, Commander."

They gazed at each other for a moment before Meredith turned around and left the room. Felix sold the two missile launchers, upgraded the engines to level 5, and upgraded the reactor twice.

Chase was sitting at his station when suddenly he heard a voice:

"Hello, Lieutenant Chase. My name is Avis Beacon. My purpose is to help you type words faster."

He almost felt out of his chair.

"Woah! What the hell?"

Felix's voice rang through the intercom, "I upgraded the engines again. Anything different?"

"Umm, yeah. The AI that was helping me type words before suddenly started talking to me. And get this: her name is Avis Beacon!"

"Hah, that's appropriate! Must be from the upgrade. Anyways, everybody ready?"

The crew responded in the affirmative. Felix pressed JUMP.

* * *

 **Who knows why the Mantis would venture so close to a sun. Perhaps it makes for more of a challenge?**

"Really? We're close to another sun? Oh dear," Ferry remarked.

"The enemy Mantis ship has a Hermes missile, a bomb weapon, and a small laser gun. They also have a teleporter, so be ready for boarders," Meredith explained.

"Let's go."

Felix unpaused.

"He's in here!" Chase yelled as the enemy Mantis appeared next to him and began to attack.

"On the way!" Ryan shouted, scuttling to Chase as fast as he could.

Right before Meredith's laser and beam combo could land, the enemy Hermes launched a missile straight at the Kestrel's cloning bay. Felix hit GENERATE and rolled a 20. The Kestrel dipped down and gracefully avoided the missile. Meredith's combo did heavy damage to the enemy weapons, shields, O2, and piloting. Meanwhile, Ryan and Chase had just killed the enemy Mantis. However, Ryan had taken a lot of damage in the process.

The enemy bomb weapon and laser weapon fired, but both missed completely. Meredith responded with a volley of lasers, finishing off the enemy's shields system and leaving them at one hull point. A solar flare struck, igniting a chain reaction in the Mantis ship and causing it to explode.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 35_

The solar flare had also lit two fires in the Kestrel: one in the doors system, and another in an empty room. The fire in the doors system had also disabled it, preventing Felix from controlling the doors and venting out the oxygen.

"Lieutenant, you and I will extinguish the fire in the empty room," Meredith commanded.

"And Ensign Ferry and I will take out the fire in the doors room," Felix followed up.

They split up and took on the fires in pairs, easily extinguishing them while only taking minimal damage.

"All right, we're leaving this beacon. No more freaking suns, please!" Felix said as he hit the JUMP button to the exit beacon.

* * *

 **You've arrived at the Long-Range Beacon. When the FTL Drive is charged you can jump to the next Sector.**

 **A ship with conspicuous pirate markings is orbiting a nearby moon, broadcasting a simple message claiming to have equipment available for sale.**

 **1\. Hail the ship.**

 **2\. Attack him before he can attack!**

 **3\. Quickly prepare to jump away.**

"I remember that this was a trap. It would be safer to take option two and attack," Meredith recommended.

"Attacking pirates is fine by me," Felix replied.

He hit option two.

The ship was equipped with a three layers of shields, a multi-shot ion weapon, and a strange mini-gun.

"What is that mini-gun?"

Meredith hit pause.

"That weapon right there? That mini-gun is the Chain Vulcan, one of the most powerful weapons in the game," she explained.

"Wha… what does it do?" Ferry asked.

"It fires lasers. The first few shots take a while to charge up, but its rate of fire increases with every shot. At maximum charge, it fires a laser every second."

"Every second? That's awesome!" Chase exclaimed.

"That's terrifying!" Ryan corrected.

"Our priority has to be to take out their weapons system, above all else."

"That's all you then, Commander. Ready, everyone?"

Felix unpaused.

After a few moments, the Vulcan fired its first shot, which the Kestrel easily absorbed. Meredith returned fire, but only one out of three laser shots hit the enemy shields. Before she could fire again, the Vulcan fired. Once again, easily absorbed. However, the enemy ion weapon fired three ion shots at the Kestrel, with two of them connecting.

Meredith finally fired again, and this time the lasers took down all of the enemy shields. She smirked as she let loose the Halberd Beam across the pirate ship's piloting and weapons. This disabled the pirate's ion weapon, but their Vulcan was still firing.

The Vulcan fired a shot. Then another shot. Then another shot. Absorbed, dodged, dodged.

"Return fire, Commander!" Felix yelled.

He was hitting GENERATE faster than he ever had before. That Chain Vulcan was firing at a nightmarish rate.

"I will, as soon as I'm charged up!"

Finally, the Burst Laser II was charged. She fired a volley, taking down all of the pirate's shields again and she let loose the Halberd Beam. As soon as it contacted the enemy ship and destroyed the enemy's weapons, they sent out a surrender offer.

Right after Felix refused it, the game unpaused, and the Halberd Beam dragged its way through the rest of the pirate ship. It blew up.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missile 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 38_

"Vulcan, Schmulcan," Chase taunted.

"You do realize how fast it was firing, right?" Ryan asked.

"Please. With my engine skill and the Captain's piloting skills? It wouldn't have touched us."

"There's always a chance they could have gotten lucky."

"Well, they didn't."

"Commander, looks like we have two options for our next Sector: Uncharted Nebula and Slug Controlled Nebula," Felix said.

"I personally avoid nebulas, but if we have to travel through one, it is better that we explore the Slug Controlled Nebula," Meredith replied.

"Sounds good. Let's go!"

Felix hit JUMP and they traveled to the next Sector.

* * *

 **The only thing that can render a nebula more dangerous is if it's also home to the Slugs. This particular nebula is just that.**

"Wow… everything is so… purple out there," Ferry remarked.

"Yeah, trippy," Ryan said.

"This is a nebula, men. We won't be able to use our sensors, but that's not too big of a deal. Plus, all these clouds are going to help distract the Rebel fleet," Felix explained.

"Captain? What exactly is a Slug?" Ferry asked.

"I'm… not actually sure about that," Felix responded. "Commander?"

"Slugs are large, telepathic slugs. They can sense enemy life forms in ships without sensors, and they're immune to mind control. They also have a reputation of being somewhat scummy," Meredith explained.

"Okay then. Let's find some of these slugs and teach them how the Kestrel handles business."

Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **Direct attacks are not preferred by the Slugs, but of the three you see at this beacon, one has the brass to make a move on your position!**

"Bring it on! That's the smallest ship I've ever seen!" Chase shouted.

"Captain? Care to do the analysis?" Meredith asked.

"They have a multi-shot laser, a small laser, and a Halberd Beam. Two layers of shields means that we can handle them, no problem," Chase explained.

"Nice."

Felix unpaused.

The Slug Scout ship looked like a rounded head of a bullet with three metal tails pointing out the back of it. It fired a couple of laser shots at the Kestrel, but they were either dodged or absorbed by the shields. Meredith returned fire, taking out the enemy shields, which allowed the Halberd Beam rip through four of the five rooms in the small Slug ship. The Slugs signaled for surrender.

 **You have besssted us! Will you accept what is in our storesss in exchange for our livess?**

 **1\. Let them live.**

 **2\. We will not accept surrender!**

The Slug sounded like a snake.

"Captain, normally I would not accept surrender. However, in the Slugs' case, we should definitely never accept surrender. There is a high chance that they give us a very low amount of resources in exchange for their lives," Meredith explained.

"Fair enough."

Felix hit option two.

The Slug ship retaliated by firing their Halberd Beam, but even it could not penetrate three layers of shields. They desperately fired their small laser at the Kestrel, but Felix easily evaded the shot. Meredith fired the lasers and beam again, ripping apart the Slug ship.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missile 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 43_

"So far, not very impressed with the Slugs," Ryan commented.

"That was a basic Slug ship. Their advanced ones will pose much more of a threat," Meredith responded.

"I hope so. That was almost too easy," Felix said.

He hit the JUMP button to their next beacon: a store.

* * *

 **A huge Slug teleports from nowhere onto the bridge! Before you can open fire, he's spread his wares across the helm and is brandishing things at you.**

Felix waited for Meredith to join him before opening up the STORE menu.

For sale were a Pegasus missile launcher, a Heavy Laser I, a Chain Ion, drone control, medbay, backup battery, defense drones, a beam drone, and crew members.

"What do you recommend?" Felix inquired.

"While a drone control system would be nice, having an additional weapon means we will be able to get through enemy shields more reliably. The faster we destroy their weapons systems, the less damage we will take. Therefore, we should purchase and install the Heavy Laser I. It requires only one unit of power and does two damage per shot," Meredith explained.

"I like that. Good idea, Commander."

Felix purchased the Heavy Laser I, repaired the hull to 20 out of 30 hull points, and bought fuel. He also upgraded the weapons system and equipped the new weapon.

"All right, let's rock."

Felix turned around and noticed that Meredith was still standing there. She looked inexplicably worried. Without another word, she left and returned to her station. Felix wanted to say something, but since everyone would hear, he decided against it.

Felix hit the JUMP button.


	17. Chapter 17

_Author's Note:_

 _You arrive near the fanfic's Chapter 17 beacon._

 _1\. Read._

 _2\. Don't read._

 _3\. Happy Thanksgiving._

* * *

 **You arrive near the distress beacon's signal.**

 **You track the distress beacon with difficulty to one of the seven moons of a planet hidden in the nebula.**

 **1\. Investigate.**

"Not really giving us many choices, huh? Ryan commented.

"Seven moons? Where in the fuck did we ever see seven moons? All I can see is fucking purple out there!" Chase exclaimed.

Felix hit option one.

 **As you drift closer, you are contacted by a slug marooned on the moon's surface. "I shall join your crew, sssay I, if you can answer me this simple quesssstion. How many moons are there in orbit here?"**

 **1\. Five.**

 **2\. Six.**

 **3\. Seven.**

 **4\. Eleven.**

"Okay… it's seven," Chase said. "Seven fucking moons."

"Right…"

Felix selected option three.

" **That isss… correct. You sssurprise me. Human, is it? Yesss… we can be partners." the Slug beams aboard and joins your crew!**

 _Kirby Shields_

Immediately afterwards, a human-sized Slug plopped down next to Felix. It smelled absolutely horrible. Some sort of slimy substance oozed from the Slug and all over its skin. Felix recoiled in horror and pinched his nose with a hand.

"What? What isss thiss?" the Slug named Kirby hissed.

Kirby touched his body with his stumpy arms.

"What the heck am I?" he gurgled.

"You're a Slug, one of the alien races of FTL. You've been transported from real life into a game of FTL. This ship is called the Kestrel, and I am Captain Felix," Felix explained.

"What happened to my body?"

"Your consciousness has taken the place of an NPC who was a Slug, as far as we know," Felix responded. "We have another crew member who was a human in real life, but is now a giant Mantis."

"That's me," Ryan said in his scratchy Mantis voice.

"We'll explain everything to you, don't worry."

Felix and the crew introduced themselves, explained FTL, and explained their current situation to Kirby.

"Man, we should really make an informative pamphlet and give it to the newbs. Explaining everything every time we get a new crew member sucks!" Chase remarked.

"It's not like we have a time limit. There's no rush," Felix replied. "Plus, I think it's good for Ryan and Ferry to hear again."

"It was helpful to hear again after experiencing some actual gameplay," Ferry admitted.

"I apologize for sssmelling bad and looking grossss, everyone," Kirby said.

"It's fine, really…" Ferry said.

"I know it'sss not. I can tell what you're thinking."

"Oh, right… heh… telepathic. Haha… please don't hurt me!" Ferry squealed.

"I wouldn't hurt you guys. After all, it sssounds like we need to work together to make it through thisss game."

"That's correct. The first order of business is to assign you a title and a role. With that, I would like to welcome to the crew of the Kestrel, Ensign Kirby," Felix announced.

"I can't say I'm glad to be ssstuck in a game, but I'll do the besst I can to get us out of it."

"Since we only have one more mannable system, you will be manning the sensor system, Ensign," Meredith said. "Go take a look at it and figure out how it works. It should be similar to mini-game from the real world, if the trend holds true."

Felix and Kirby entered the sensor room. Kirby slinked his way next to the control panel and looked at the screen. All it showed was static.

"Oh, right. We're in a nebula. Sensors don't work in nebulas," Felix stated. "Anyways, this is your station from now on. Once we get out of the nebula, you can test out the sensors. Understood, Ensign?"

"Sssure, Captain."

"Okay everyone, return to your stations. We're moving out!"

Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **You find a Slug vessel broadcasting the distress signal and contact them. "Ah, yesss, we are having problems with our oxygen generation unit. Perhaps your crew can assist in repairsss?"**

 **1\. Send some crew to help.**

 **2\. Ignore them.**

 **3\. (Mantis Crew) Have your Mantis oversee the repairs.**

"Looks like option three is the blue option. Why would a Mantis be the best for repairing, though?" Felix commented. "Oh well, option three it is."

"Am I going to their ship?" Ryan asked, a little intimidated.

"I guess so. It's a blue option, though, so I don't see anything bad happening."

"Okay, Captain."

Felix hit option three.

 **Once on board, it becomes clear that nothing is wrong with their O2 system. Almost expecting this, your Mantis calmly responds to the trap. Once a couple of the Slugs have been spread across the walls of their ship, the rest surrender.**

 _Scrap 67_

"Wow, badass, Ryan!" Chase shouted.

"I didn't do anything though."

"So? That description was awesome, and we got tons of scrap!"

"Glad to have you aboard, Ensign," Felix chuckled.

"You're welcome, Captain… I guess."

After celebrating the huge gain in scrap, Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **Either this part of slug space is deserted, or it's too dense for even slugs to detect your presence. Time to move.**

"Lame."

Felix hit the JUMP button again.

* * *

 **You are immediately hailed by a dangerous looking ship guarding a station. "I'm feeling generouss today. I shall allow you to choose your own death. Which do you like the leassst: shields, oxygen, or weaponsss?"**

 **1\. Shields.**

 **2\. Oxygen.**

 **3\. Weapons.**

 **4\. Offer 35 scrap to leave you alone.**

"Umm… how dangerous is dangerous? Ferry asked, sounding scared.

"If we choose to fight, which I believe we should, we should choose option two. I believe that we can defeat the enemy before we run out of oxygen. If not, then we can simply jump to the next beacon and restore our oxygen there," Meredith explained.

"So whatever option we pick, they'll disable?" Felix asked.

"It will be halved. Since we have one level of oxygen, it will be rounded down to zero."

"Option two then. Plus, we have a cloning bay. As long as the enemy doesn't damage it, they won't be able to kill all of us."

Felix selected option two.

 **"A being that would choose sssuffocation? Who am I to judge…" Your life support is sabotaged and they move in to attack.**

The metal enemy Slug Light-Cruiser had a mushroom-like head with a straight metal stem.

"The enemy Slug ship is armed with an ion weapon, a heavy laser, and a Glaive Beam. The Glaive Beam is the strongest beam weapon in the game, able to penetrate through two layers of shields. We should be able to take out their weapons before they can fire it, though," Meredith explained.

"That is one huuuuge beam weapon!" Ryan commented after whistling.

"Ready? Let's rock."

Felix unpaused.

The enemy ship fired its ion and laser weapons, but both missed the Kestrel. Meredith fired four lasers in response, but only one of them hit. Thankfully, the enemy only had two layers of shielding in the first place, allowing the Halberd Beam to penetrate their one layer and do some damage to their weapons and shields. This disabled the enemy ion gun.

The Slugs attempted to retaliate with a laser shot followed by the Glaive Beam, but the laser missed. As a result, even the thundering red might of the Glaive Beam couldn't penetrate the three layers of Kestrel shielding.

Meredith returned fire, this time striking with all four lasers and tearing up the enemy ship with the Halberd Beam. The enemy ship was left a sitting duck without its weapons online, and Meredith finally took them out with another well-placed volley. Felix glanced at the oxygen levels: 48%

 **The Slug ship breaks apart and your systems return to normal. You collect what you can.**

 _Missile 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 50_

"I don't think they'll be trying that stuff again any time soon," Ryan quipped.

"Let's keep moving."

Felix hit the JUMP button to a store after the oxygen levels returned to 100%.

* * *

 **You cautiously approach a Slug colony on a huge asteroid. It's a brave person who sets foot on a Slug planet - it can take weeks to get the mucus out of your clothes - but there's business to be done.**

For sale at the store were medbay, crew teleporter, cloaking, crew members, a repair arm, a battery charger, and emergency respirators.

Meredith entered the room, avoiding eye contact with Felix.

"Suggestions, Commander?"

"Nothing worth buying except fuel and repairs. Save the scrap for the next store," she said before leaving.

"Okay…"

Felix did just that and JUMPED to the next beacon, attempting to ignore Meredith's strange attitude.

* * *

 **You spot a Rebel ship in the nebula ahead and stay off their radar. Try to engage?**

 **1\. Stay hidden.**

 **2\. Prepare to chase them!**

"No way we're letting them get away. Shall we chase, Commander?" Felix asked.

"Go for it."

Felix hit option two.

 **You get disoriented in the nebula and lose your bearings completely. It takes some time to get back to the beacon. It's likely the fleet has had time to advance closer to your position.**

 _Fleet pursuit doubled for 1 jump_

"Well, that was a bad decision," Felix said.

Felix hit the JUMP button, and jumped as far as he could from the encroaching Rebel fleet.

* * *

 **You're surprised to find a ship without Slug markings stranded all the way out here, and move in to provide assistance. When you see the pirate insignia on the hull you quickly reconsider.**

 **1\. Attack!**

 **2\. Keep your distance and hope they haven't seen you yet.**

The enemy ship was a Rock ship

"Looks like they're pirates. Should we engage them, Commander?"

"Yes, we should," she responded.

"Are you sure about this one?" Felix asked, a hint of doubt in his voice.

"Yes, I am, Captain. I apologize for the result of the last beacon."

"It's fine, Commander."

Felix hit option one.

As soon as the fight started, the Pirate Rock ship cloaked.

"It looks like they have an ion gun, a Hermes missile launcher, and a flak gun. As well as cloaking, as we can all tell," Felix explained. "Let's do it."

The enemy ship remained cloaked for a while, preventing Meredith from charging her weapons. When it uncloaked, it fired its ion gun and flak weapon. Most of the flak missed, but the ion shot collided directly into the Kestrel's shields, partially disabling them.

"I'm charging our weapons now," Meredith announced.

"Can you fire before-"

The enemy fired their Hermes missile. Felix rolled a 90 and the missile exploded in the empty room next to the Kestrel's O2 systems. Meredith and Chase could hear a loud hissing coming from the room.

"It sounds like the missile broke a hole in our hull," Meredith stated. "We can repair it after the fight, since that room is non-essential."

She fired her lasers and beam, decimating the pirate ship and bringing them down to one hull point. They messaged the Kestrel for surrender. Felix declined. One more volley from Meredith and the enemy ship was no more.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 1, Missiles 1, Scrap 52_

"Good work, crew. Onwards."

Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **You've arrived at a Long-Range Beacon. when the FTL Drive is charged you can jump to the next Sector.**

 **An advanced Rebel automated ship remains stationed near a small Rebel space-station. Sensors indicate it's a storage vessel for military goods.**

 **1\. Attack the automated ship to get to the storage cache.**

 **2\. Avoid provoking the ship.**

"All right, Ensign Ryan. Do you remember our motto?" Felix asked.

"What, you mean the one where we take every fight?"

"Exactly. That's what this game is all about, Ensign Kirby."

"Sssure thing, Captain."

Felix hit option one.

The enemy Auto-Hacker immediately shot out a hacking drone.

"Hey guys! I can ssee something on the sensors screen!" Kirby called out excitedly.

The hacking drone slammed into the Kestrel's sensor station, and Kirby's display turned to static again.

"...Never mind."

"The enemy ship is equipped with an ion gun, a small laser gun, and a bomb weapon. Not much of a threat," Meredith explained.

The enemy ions and lasers barely damaged the Kestrel's shields, while Meredith's combo almost completely destroyed the enemy's weapons, piloting, and hacking systems. With their hacking systems were disabled, a large red button emerged on Kirby's control panel.

"There's a big button here now. Should I press it?" Kirby asked.

"Go for it, Ensign."

He pressed the button, and a complete view of the inside of the enemy ships appeared on all of the crew members' screens. As soon as he let go of the button, the view went dark again. Kirby held the button down this time and the view of the enemy ship remained.

Felix could see that the enemy auto-ship was completely devoid of crew and oxygen. Regardless, their weapons room was somehow on fire.

"Useful!" Felix stated.

At that moment, the enemy ship deployed a bomb, which teleported into the Kestrel's airlock room and exploded in a burst of fire. A small fire was left behind.

"Venting!"

Felix opened the airlock to the outside and the fire was quickly extinguished. Meredith fired a volley, finishing off the Rebel ship.

 **You salvage what you can from the broken ship.**

 _Scrap 43_

 **The station is a storage site for military grade weapons. You find one that can be easily attached to the ship.**

 _Scrap 24 Breach Bomb Mark II_

"This is an excellent pick-up. Bomb weapons are much more reliable than missile weapons since they can't be countered by defense drones. All of the scrap is also a fine bonus," Meredith commented.

"It looks like we're in pretty good shape. Commander Meredith, do you suggest that we upgrade anything?" Felix asked.

"Since we're at the exit beacon, Captain, we should jump to the next Sector first. There may be a shop right next to the next Sector's starting beacon."

"Hey, is someone going to repair this hull breach?" Chase asked.

"Ensign Kirby, come with me. This is a good learning experience," Meredith ordered. "Grab a wrench off the walls and get ready to screw down the panel."

"Why is the room red on the display?" Kirby inquired hesitantly.

"That means that there is no oxygen in the room. We'll take a bit of damage because of it, but nothing too serious."

"Oh… okay."

"Just remember, Ensign, leave the room as soon as we finish the repairs. We want to avoid unnecessary damage."

The two entered the damaged room and got to work. They finished the repairs with half of their healths remaining.

"Egggghh… I could feel my body getting crussshed in there," Kirby said.

"You'll be fine. We all heal a small amount every time we FTL jump," Meredith explained. "Return to your station, Ensign."

"Looks like we have the choice between the Abandoned Sector and a Mantis Controlled Sector," Felix stated.

"I suggest the Mantis Sector, for the same reasons as last time," Meredith replied.

"Sounds good."

Felix pressed the JUMP button and they were propelled to Sector 7.


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: This one's long. Next one will be short.**

* * *

 **You've entered a poorly charted area of space that's known to be home to the Mantis. Ensure your hull plating is up to scratch and that you have enough fuel in the tank to make it through.**

"No store, Commander. What should we upgrade?" Felix said.

"We should upgrade our weapons another level so that we can use the Breach bomb. That way if we encounter a four-shield enemy in this sector, we can handle them," Meredith suggested.

Felix did the upgrades.

"Also, since we are in a Mantis Sector, it would be wise to upgrade our Doors subsystem. We will need to perform the upgrade in preparation for the Rebel Flagship anyways."

Felix obliged.

"Okay, let's rock."

Felix JUMPED to the next distress beacon.

* * *

 **The distress signal is coming from a small space station orbiting an uninhabited planet. Their satellite defense system has gone haywire and their repair crew can't approach without being fired on. They're looking to help to fix or disable it.**

 **1\. Promise to help.**

 **2\. Leave them alone.**

Felix hit option one.

 **You consider your options.**

 **1\. Simply fire on the defense system from a distance.**

Felix hit option one again.

 **You fire a few volleys from a distance and it is clear the defense system is no match for your weapons. However, the station does not seem happy with your "solution". You salvage what you can and jump before there is trouble.**

 _Missiles 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 30_

"Okay. That was simple. Onwards," Felix stated.

He hit the JUMP button to the next beacon.

* * *

 **You pick up a distress call from a civilian ship. It's being chased by a Mantis ship!**

 **1\. Aid the civilian ship.**

 **2\. Stay out of it.**

"We're saving them."

Felix hit option one.

 **You frown, power up the weapons and prepare to engage the Mantis ship. Not today.**

"The three-shield enemy Mantis ship has an Artemis missile launcher, a small beam weapon, a Burst Laser II, and twin-shot lasers. They also have teleporting, so prepare for boarders," Meredith explained.

"Boardersss?" Kirby asked.

"Ensign Ryan, be prepared to engage the boarders when they arrive. Ensign Kirby, take Ensign Ryan's place at the doors subsystem if that happens," Meredith commanded.

Felix unpaused.

The enemy fired a missile and a laser, but the Kestrel smoothly dodged the shots. Two Mantises boarded the ship in an empty room.

"Captain! Vent them out!" Meredith shouted.

Felix opened the doors to the outside, sucking out the oxygen from the Mantises' room. They scrambled to break into Meredith's weapons room and get some air. The upgraded doors did an admirable job of holding them off, but their claws and acid eventually broke through. Meredith saw the two giant Mantises running at her and went to the room towards the starboard side. The oxygen ran out in the weapons room too, forcing the Mantises to break into the portside room.

Meanwhile, Felix saw that the Commander was pre-occupied, so he fired the lasers at the the Mantis ship. One of the Burst Laser shots collided with an enemy missile instead of the enemy shields, blowing up the missile before it could hit the Kestrel. As a consequence, the enemy ship's shields remained almost full. Felix could not fire the Halberd Beam. However, after the lasers recharged, Felix fired the laser and beam combo. This heavily damaged four of the enemy's systems.

By this point, the boarding Mantises were fed up with losing health from no oxygen and teleported back to their ship.

"Captain Felix, close all doors and restore the oxygen levels," Meredith commanded.

"Got it."

Two enemy missiles had struck the Kestrel, one in an empty room, and another in the engines room. Both Meredith and Chase worked to repair the engines. Felix fired one last volley and the Mantis ship was defeated.

 **The Mantis ship breaks apart.**

 _Fuel 3, Missiles 2, Scrap 49_

 **It seems that the crew did not survive the assault. You take what you can from the remains of the ship.**

 _Missiles 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 27_

"So… they're all dead?" Kirby asked.

"Unfortunately. Just remember, they're just NPCs, and this is a scripted game," Felix responded.

"Are you sure?"

Felix thought about it for a moment. It was best not to damage the morale of the crew, especially the newer members.

"Yes, Ensign. Don't worry about it."

Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **You arrive in an asteroid belt to discover that a Rebel automated-scout has been stationed here. Prepare for a fight!**

"All right, crew. The enemy ship is armed with a large ion weapon, a multi-shot ion weapon, and a small laser. They have three shields. We're also in an asteroid fields, which means that random asteroids will occasionally hit us," Felix explained.

"That's a lot of asteroids!" Ferry exclaimed, looking at the hundreds of speeding rocks in the background.

"Prepare yourselves."

Felix unpaused.

The enemy Rebel auto-ship fired their slew of weapons at the Kestrel, but none of the shots could break through all of the Kestrel's shields. Conversely, one combo from Meredith almost completely destroyed the enemy ship. It only took one more combo to unceremoniously explode the Rebel ship.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 2, Missiles 1, Scrap 58_

Felix hit the JUMP button to a store and escaped the asteroid belt.

* * *

 **The Rebels are already here! The crew braces for impact, but none comes. The sensors report the unmanned rebel supply ship is malfunctioning and is stuck in vending mode - for a little scrap you can take your pick.**

"Phew! That first sentence scared me!" Ferry shouted.

"Really? I was looking forward to a fight," Chase replied.

For sale was drone control, cloaking, backup battery, hacking stun, long-ranged scanners, and a FTL recharge booster.

As he looked over the possible purchases, Meredith entered the room with purpose. Felix felt her lithe frame teeming with a new sort of resolve.

"Captain, I just want to let you know… and the rest of the crew… that I will do my best to protect all of us and make sure we all make it out of this alive. I will not make any more mistakes," she stated with fire in her eyes, staring straight at him.

"You've done an excellent job already, Commander Meredith. We wouldn't have made it this far without you," Felix responded.

"But it was my mistake that cost us a precious life." She couldn't hold her gaze any longer and looked away from Felix. "I only hope my continued service and unending vigilance will at least make up a small part of my penance."

"Wait… who died?" Ferry asked.

"Sssomeone died?" Kirby joined in furtively.

"That's news to me," Ryan commented.

Felix sighed. It was about time they found out.

"Yes, well I suppose that you should all know. Early on in our run, an unfortunate random event took a crew member from us. We had taken all the proper precautions, but we took a big risk and paid for it. Commander Meredith told us in the very beginning that losses were a very real possibility. And they remain a possibility. I won't lie to you all and guarantee that all of us will make it out of this game alive, but we're sure as hell going to try," Felix explained.

"How exactly did she die?" Ferry cried out.

"The game message said that she was torn from our ship while investigating some random ship's wreckage," Chase said. "That didn't actually physically happen, at least. She was able to talk to us one last time until we unpaused and the game took her away from us."

"Well, that sucks," Ryan said flatly. "I'm sorry."

"The Commander… Meredith! She should feel the most sorry out of all of us. She chose the dialogue option that led to Margaret's death," Chase stated. "This is something that I will always blame you for, Meredith. Until the day I die."

"And I do feel sorry. I've never felt so sorry about anything in my life. I will never forgive myself, and you should not forgive me either, Lieutenant Chase. My guilt, and your judgment of me, are the impetuses that now drive me to ensure our safety. That is why I will do my best to make sure we survive this. All of us," Meredith replied.

Chase heard this and felt himself choke up a bit. "Commander, I will never forgive you. But that doesn't mean that I hate you. I don't think I could ever bring myself to hate you. You've done so much good for us," he admitted softly.

"You don't know how much that means to me, Lieutenant. Thank you," she responded, tears welling up.

"Thank you for your conviction, Commander. You're a blessing. Now get over here and help me choose some purchases, will ya?" Felix said with a laugh and a smile.

Meredith wiped the tears from her eyes

"Of course."

She looked over the options, taking a deep breath.

"We should pick up the cloaking. It will be invaluable against the Rebel Flagship. The drone control does not include defense drones, but it is not a necessity to have drone control anyways."

"Okay then."

Felix bought the cloaking system.

"We're all going to try our best and beat this damn game. And we will beat this game! Who's with me?" Felix asked.

"Hah, who's not?" Chase responded.

No one said anything.

"Great. Since we're all in accord, let's keep going!"

Felix hit the JUMP button to the next distress beacon.

* * *

 **Once you arrive at the location of the distress call a civilian ship hails you, "Thanks for responding to our beacon. Our FTL navigation has gone haywire and we can't plot a course to the nearest depot to get it fixed. Could you lead us there?"**

 **1\. Lead them to their destination.**

 **2\. Decline.**

"Let's help them out."

Felix hit option one.

 **Take this bit of scrap as down-payment. We'll use your jump signatures to follow you. You're really helping us out here.**

 **Added a quest marker to your map!**

 _Scrap 28_

Felix hit the JUMP button to the next beacon.

* * *

 **Your world, all of the sudden, changes. The Mantis are on board your ship.**

 _Intruders on board_

"Everyone, get ready to fight!" Meredith yelled.

"Belay that order. I think we can take them out by venting out their oxygen," Felix responded.

Three Mantises appeared in the weapons room. Meredith and Chase dashed to the front of the ship, taking a few slashes and spits along the way. After this, Felix opened the airlocks to the outside, draining the oxygen from the Mantis-infested rooms. The Mantises managed to break through quite a few doors, but they eventually succumbed to oxygen deprivation.

"You see that, Commander? No fighting required," Felix declared.

"That was well played, Captain."

"Okay, return to your stations, and we'll be off."

Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **You arrive at the distress beacon near a small asteroid belt and find a ship with pirate markings partially crushed between two large rocks. It must have been illegally mining the belt without proper equipment.**

 **1\. Try to dislodge the ship by shooting at the rocks.**

 **2\. Destroy and loot the ship. They're just pirates.**

 **3\. (Beam Weapon) Carefully cut the ship out.**

"Hey, I remember this encounter. We didn't have a beam weapon back then though," Chase remarked.

"It's good that we do this time. Let's do it."

Felix hit option three.

 **You use your beam to make a few precision cuts in the asteroid. The ship gives a quick burst of thrust and the rock crumbles away. They thank you and offer some of the resources they have collected.**

 _Missiles 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 50_

"Glad we don't have to fight them," Ferry commented.

"I'm glad they gave a reward," Ryan replied.

Felix hit the JUMP button after collecting the supplies.

* * *

 **You escort the ship to the requested beacon. Much to your dismay you are ambushed by a Rebel ship. You walked right into their trap!**

"The enemy Rebel ship has four shields, a Burst Laser II, and a Chain Vulcan. They also have a teleporter. This could be a tough fight," Meredith explained. "Captain, I recommend that we cloak as soon as you unpause."

Felix located the cloaking button on his control panel.

"Got it. Let's do it."

Felix unpaused and immediately cloaked the Kestrel. The whole ship vanished, leaving only a blue outline of the outsides of the ship. However, the cloaking only lasted for a few seconds. Boarders appeared as soon as the Kestrel re-appeared.

"Ensigns Ryan and Kirby, engage the boarders!" Meredith commanded.

The Rebel ship began to bombard the Kestrel with a stream of lasers. Meredith remained cool under fire and launched a bomb at the enemy shields system. However, it missed completely, forcing Meredith to wait for it to recharge before firing the Halberd Beam.

The fight between the boarders and the two Kestrel crewmembers was extremely close, but Ryan and Kirby emerged victorious. The enemy Vulcan was firing faster and faster, starting to chew away easily at the Kestrel's shields. Ferry drummed the drum furiously.

"I don't know if I can keep this up much longer!" Ferry yelled.

Meredith cracked her knuckles and fired the bomb again. This time, it teleported directly into the Rebel shield system and exploded, disabling two layers of enemy shields. Taking the cue, she fired a volley of lasers and the Halberd Beam, taking their Chain Vulcan offline and bringing the enemy down to one layer of shields. The Rebels issued a surrender message. Felix declined.

All it took was another volley to eliminate the Rebel ship.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Missiles 2, Drone Part 1, Scrap 65_

"Ssserves them right for tricking us," Kirby remarked.

"Commander Meredith, I'm going to full upgrade our weapons. That way you can use all four weapons at once," Felix declared.

"I approve."

Felix did so, and Meredith armed the Burst Laser II, Halberd Beam, Breach Bomb II, and Heavy Laser I.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Chase said, admiring the weapons.

"Let's try them out."

Felix JUMPED to the next beacon.

* * *

 **You arrive in an asteroid belt to discover that a Rebel automated-scout has been stationed here. Prepare for a fight!**

"The enemy ship has four shields, a Burst Laser III, and an Artemis missile launcher. They have also deployed two combat drones to attack us. We are also in an asteroid field," Meredith explained.

"Get ready to pound those drums, Ensign Ferry. Our shields need to stay up. Let's go!"

Felix unpaused.

The ensuing fight was a fustercluck. The two combat drones fired lasers faster than Ferry could recharge. The enemy Burst Laser III rained five lasers at a time upon the Kestrel. The enemy missiles fired every several seconds. Felix repeatedly smashed his GENERATE button, Ferry was drumming like a madman, and Meredith was desperately trying to get through the enemy ship's four shields.

A laser hit the Kestrel's cloning bay and then their weapons system. Fire spread throughout the cloning bay.

"Can you try and dodge better, guys?" Ferry cried out, exasperated.

"Can you keep our shields up better?" Chase spat back.

"Captain Felix, vent the oxygen in the cloning bay! Ensigns Ryan and Kirby, help repair the weapons system!" Meredith barked over the arguing.

Meredith's first breach bomb missed, much to her dismay, but the second one disabled the enemy's Burst Laser III. However, this still left the stream of missiles and combat drone lasers upon them, not to mention the asteroids from the asteroid field.

Luckily, Felix and Chase managed to evade more shots. This allowed Meredith to focus long enough to repair the system and bomb the enemy's shields. With only two layers of shields left, Meredith unleashed a laser stream and beam, disabling one of the enemy drones and heavily damaging the enemy ship. With the next volley, the enemy ship was destroyed.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 1, Missiles 1, Scrap 57_

"Wow, that got a little bit crazy there," Ryan remarked. "We handled it though."

"Getting through four layers of shields is tough… we have to rely solely on our breach bomb," Felix stated. "This is a worrying trend."

"It is possible to get through four layers of shields without the breach bomb if all four of our lasers connect. However, the chances of that happening are rather low. We should focus on defense while the breach bomb is charging," Meredith replied.

"Okay, let's keep that in mind at the next beacon. It's the exit beacon, everyone."

Felix hit the JUMP and they were transported to the exit beacon.

* * *

 **You've arrived at a Long-Range Beacon. when the FTL Drive is charged you can jump to the next Sector.**

 **You stumble across a Rebel ship distributing supplies to local civilian colonies. It's probably not anything military grade, but every little bit helps...**

 **1\. Attack the Rebels.**

 **2\. Wait and steal the supplies from the civilians.**

 **3\. Leave them be.**

"Rebel fighting time."

Felix hit option one.

"Okay, let's see," Felix said. "We got an enemy three-shield Rebel ship. They're armed with a Burst Laser II, a twin-shot laser, and a flak weapon. They also have two beam drones. This shouldn't be too bad."

"Captain, make sure you cloak right before the enemy projectiles strike our ship, but not before they fire. If you cloak prematurely, their weapons will fire right as we leave the cloak. If we dodge the projectiles outright with the cloak, they'll have to recharge their weapons," Meredith explained.

"Okay… I'll see what I can do," Felix responded.

After a few moments, the Rebel ship fired a flak barrage and three lasers at the same time. Just as Meredith suggested, Felix hit the cloak button right before impact. All of the enemy projectiles missed.

"Wow, that was nice!"

Meredith responded with a breach boom in the enemy shields, followed by lasers and beam. This entire rotation left the enemy ship at one hull point. All it took was another laser barrage to destroy the Rebel ship.

 **With the Rebel ship destroyed, you take the time to collect what little scrap remains. They had already made their delivery to the civilians.**

 _Fuel 1, Missiles 1, Scrap 29_

 **1\. Steal the civilian supplies.**

 **2\. Leave the civilians alone.**

"Sorry, civilians. We want to win."

Felix hit option one.

 **You make the colonists teleport the supplies to your ship. It's nothing more than building construction supplies. Oh well, scrap is scrap.**

 _Scrap 32_

"Eh, good enough. Everyone ready for this?" Felix asked.

They were at the exit beacon of Sector 7. The next Sector was titled "The Last Stand."

"We're at the end?" Chase inquired.

"Yes, this is the last normal sector of the game," Meredith explained. "The next sector is where we fight our way to the final boss, the Rebel Flagship."

"What do you think our chances are, Commander Meredith?" Ryan asked.

"With our current set-up, I give us a 50% chance of victory. It is all very dependent on how well we dodge and how accurate our breach bomb is."

"50%? That's awfully low!" Ferry remarked.

"I don't like thossse oddss," Kirby said.

"If we can pick up some extra equipment before we get to the final fight, we can raise the chances," Meredith stated.

"We can do it, crew. We've made it this far. As long as you all listen to orders and remain calm, we can win," Felix declared. "Now let's see what this final sector is all about."

Felix hit the JUMP button to Sector 8, The Last Stand.


	19. Chapter 19

**You arrive at an outpost close to the Federation Base. Your access codes get you past initial security and an officer sets up a direct feed to the Federation Base's war room. Admiral Tully speaks first saying, "What is the meaning of this?! Who are you?"**

 **1\. Explain your mission.**

Felix hit option one.

 **Your explanation is met with murmurs of cynicism and disbelief among the officers. General Turzil of the Engi Brigade speaks up, "Intel suggests potential counter to Rebel technology. risk all or save none."**

 **1\. Explain the weakness of the enemy fleet, the Rebel flagship.**

Felix hit option one again.

 **Tully responds, "It's settled. The Rebels will be here in a matter of moments. We will do what we can to hold off their warships but you must succeed in destroying this flagship. Your current outpost can provide some repairs and fuel, and the other repair stations can provide aid as well. Good luck."**

 _Fuel 10_

 _10 hull points repaired_

Felix opened up the beacon map. The background was stamped with large red bars, indicating sector-wide danger. There were three repair beacons scattered among the map. The home base beacon was in the center of the map. Felix read the message by the map out loud:

"The Flagship will destroy the Federation Base if it spends three consecutive turns there. The red rotating Flagship icon indicates its position. When the jump line from the ship is solid, it will jump to the indicated beacon on that turn. Repair stations partially repair for free."

"What are at all of these other beacons?" Chase asked.

"Most of them are Rebel ship encounters," Meredith replied.

"Okay…. ready for this?" Felix asked the crew.

Everyone responded in the affirmative, and Felix hit the JUMP button.

* * *

 **A small rebel ship is docked at a small station. You try to law low but it spots you. Power up the weapons!**

"The enemy Rebel ship has four shields, an Artemis missile launcher, a Halberd Beam, a Chain Vulcan, and a teleporter. Let's beat them as fast as we can to minimize damage," Felix explained.

As the fight started, two human boarders appeared in the piloting system.

"Come at me! I've had worse things appear in here!" Felix roared.

"Ensign Ryan, go in there and help the Captain!" Meredith commanded.

"I'm low on health…"

"The cloning bay will bring you back if you die. Get in there!"

"Okay, Commander."

Felix and Ryan scuffled with the boarders, but Ryan was ultimately torn apart by the skilled human fighter. He was being regenerated in the cloning bay.

"We need someone else in here!" Felix shouted, fighting two people at once."

"Ensign Kirby! Help the Captain!"

"Sssso be it!"

With Kirby's help, Felix was able to fend off the boarders. They teleported back to their ship before they could be killed. Felix was left in bad shape, however, only having 8/100 health points remaining.

Meanwhile, an Artemis missile struck the Kestrel, dealing one point of damage to an empty room. Meredith smirked and fired all of the Kestrel's weapons, severely damaging the Rebel's medbay, engines, weapons, and shields. Their Chain Vulcan was brought offline, reducing their threat level considerably.

Meredith fired another rotation, and the Rebels begged for surrender.

"Commander, they're offering 4 fuel, 1 drone part, 88 scrap, and a combat drone. Should we take the deal?" Felix asked, spitting out blood.

"Yes. That is actually a good deal."

Felix took the surrender terms and got up from his chair.

"I need to die," he said.

Felix dragged himself to the airlock. Kirby and Ferry looked on in horror as their captain walked by, bleeding profusely.

"Commander, open up the airlock," Felix commanded once he was in position.

"Yessir."

The door opened to the harsh conditions of space and Felix quickly died. He collapsed and disappeared. After a few moment, he appeared again in the cloning bay.

"Good as new."

"I'm glad to know the cloning bay works!" Ferry exclaimed.

"Me too…" Ryan remarked, examining his new body for anything different.

"Okay everyone, back to your stations. We got a mission to complete."

Felix hit the JUMP button to a repair station.

* * *

 **A trade station was abandoned nearby. Some Federation engineers repurposed their shipyard to perform military repairs. They offer to help fix your ship.**

 _Fuel 5, Missiles 4, Drone Part 5, Scrap 31_

 _1 hull point repaired_

"Not much hull repair, but a ton of resources," Felix said. "It's time we fully upgraded our shields. Okay, Commander?"

"Do it."

Felix upgraded the Kestrel's shields to four layers, and then JUMPED to the next strangely-colored beacon.

* * *

Before Felix could even read the next message, a Rebel boarder appeared on the ship. Warning beeps rang out through the ship. Felix paused.

"What the hell?" Chase asked.

Felix read the new warning icon out loud:

"The Fleet's Anti-Ship Batteries are targeting you."

"Oh no, we do not want to be hit by one of those. Those are giant projectiles that do massive amounts of damage. We need to escape," Meredith explained.

"Okay, let's play defensively. I'll jump as soon as we can," Felix responded.

The enemy Rebel ship was armed with four threatening laser weapons. They fired and fired at the Kestrel, but the four layers of shields and high evade chance mitigated the damage. Felix vented the oxygen from the invader's room, but as the invader died, two more teleported onto the backroom of the ship. Felix JUMPED to the next beacon as soon as the FTL charged, regardless. The last thing the Kestrel's crew saw from this beacon was a giant golden ball the an eighth the size of the ship almost hit them.

* * *

 **You're hailed by a Rebel ship: "When the rebellion is complete you'll see the safer world we provide. Well, you won't, but you get the point." They arm weapons.**

"The enemy Rebel ship has two twin-shot lasers and a Burst Laser II. They also have a combat drone, as well as a boarding drone. The two invaders from the last beacon as also still on our ship, but being vented at the moment," Meredith explained.

"What does the boarding drone do?"

"It rips a hole in one of our rooms and starts to attack it. Do you see that small silver missile that is heading straight towards our cloaking system? That's the boarding drone."

"Oh shit."

"The best way to deal with the boarding drone is to destroy the enemy ship. We do not want to engage it in combat because the room it enters will be oxygen-deprived. The faster we defeat them, the less damage it will do."

"Okay, let's go then."

Felix unpaused.

The boarding drone crashed into the Kestrel's cloaking system and began to break down the door to the weapons room.

"That's fucking terrifying," Chase remarked.

"Yes, the boarding drone is quite annoying."

"No, the two boarders that are trying to break into the engine room!" Chase shouted.

Felix hovered over the boarding drone.

"It looks like it's actually an ion intruder," Felix said as it entered Meredith's room.

She spun around and began to fire at the drone. Unfazed by the lasers, the ion intruder drone raised the four flaps covering it and let out an ion explosion. This stunned Meredith and deactivated the Kestrel's Breach bomb and Heavy Laser I.

"Destroy that thing before it does even more damage! Ryan and Kirby!" Felix ordered.

The ion intruder made its way over into the shields room and began to charge up.

"Oh god, guys, it- it's in here! Help!" Ferry screamed, wildly shooting at the rolling hunk of metal that had just entered the room.

Ryan and Kirby entered the room just in time to get a face-full of ion explosion. All three crew members were stunned, and two layers of Kestrel shields immediately disappeared. A few lasers from the combat drone and the enemy ship's guns hit the Kestrel.

Luckily, Meredith had recovered by this point and began to recharge all of the Kestrel's weapons. Ryan, Kirby, and Ferry managed to take down the ion intruder drone. Meredith released a volley, disabling some of the enemy ship's weapons and shields.

Without the threat of the ion intruder drone, the members of the Kestrel returned to their stations and were able to eventually defeat the Rebel ship without more injury.

 **The ship explodes, leaving behind a substantial collection of useful scrap material.**

 _Fuel 3, Missiles 2, Scrap 45_

The crew fixed the multiple hull breaches after the skirmish, but lost a great deal of health points in the process. Ferry, Kirby, and Chase were forced to commit suicide and regenerate in the cloning bay to restore their health.

"That was extremely painful. Please, never again," Ferry said as he shuddered, remembering the feeling of suffocating.

"At least all the pain is gone, right?" Chase remarked, stretching out his new body.

"Sssstill so slippery," Kirby hissed.

"Okay, crew, we're headed to that store," Felix announced. "I want to have higher than 50% win rate."

Felix JUMPED to the store.

* * *

For sale were the backup battery, mind control, hacking, Flak I, Breach Missile, and Fire Beam.

Meredith joined Felix in the piloting room.

"Flak I is one of the best weapons in the game. Buy that for sure. Also, we should sell our Breach bomb launcher and scrap recovery arms, since we won't be needing them anymore."

Felix followed Meredith's suggestions. They were left with 223 scrap.

"Since the Rebel flagship has defense drone, I believe mind control is the superior purchase to hacking. We should purchase it and upgrade it at least once," Meredith suggested.

Felix bought the mind control system and upgraded it once. He upgraded the Kestrel's reactor completely and the cloning bay once. They were left with one scrap.

"Next stop, empty beacon. Then Rebel flagship. Everyone ready for the final fight?" Felix asked.

"I would like to know exactly how the fight is going to go down. Commander?" Chase said.

"I'll tell you all about the first phase."

"There's more than one phase? Of course there'd be more than one phase…" Ferry muttered.

"There are three phases. Relax. The Rebel flagship is armed with a triple missile launcher, a triple ion shot, a powerful beam weapon, and a triple shot heavy laser gun. They will also have cloaking, hacking, and four layers of shields," Meredith explained.

"Holy shit. Holy shit," Chase said.

"Yes, 'holy shit' is right, Lieutenant. However, our cloaking should negate their missiles, and our four layers of shield and 45% evade chance should negate their other weapons," Meredith replied. "Our priority is to first take out their triple missile launcher. Our cloak will only protect us from one round of missiles. Captain Felix, you have to cloak after they fire the missiles. This is important."

"Got it, Commander."

"Also, on my word, you have to use the mind control on their pilot. Right before I fire. This will drop their evade chance significantly, allowing me to land hits with all my weapons at once."

"I understand."

"The rest of you, sit tight and be ready to assist in repairs."

"Yes, Commander!" the rest of the crew replied in unison.

"Damn, that was sexy. What a crew," Chase remarked.

"You ready, crew? Let's show this Rebel flagship who's the real flagship!" Felix shouted.

He jumped to the Federation base, where the Rebel flagship awaited.


	20. Chapter 20

**This is it… The Rebel flagship. If you are able to destroy this monstrosity, the Federation fleet will have a chance of surviving. There's no turning back!**

"Battle stations! Open fire!" Felix roared, unpausing the game.

The Rebel flagship was enormous. It was equipped with four different, deadly weapons. It had four layers of shield, a hacking system, and a cloaking system.

And the Kestrel took it head on.

The Rebel flagship immediately cloaked. A hacking drone sailed straight towards the Kestrel and implanted itself to the doors system, locking it down and shutting all the doors on the Kestrel.

"That could be bad. This will prevent us from moving about the ship to do repairs. Hopefully we destroy the Rebels before the door lockdown causes us problems," Meredith said.

The Rebel flagship finally uncloaked and let loose three giant lasers. Felix managed to dodge all of them. Not done with the assault, the flagship fired three missiles, each accented with a thump. Felix remembered Meredith's advice about missiles and cloaked, dodging all three of them.

"Our turn! Captain, mind control the pilot now!" Meredith ordered.

Felix selected the mind control and then selected the enemy pilot. A giant swirl icon appeared over the pilot's head as he began to shoot the piloting system. At the same time, Meredith unleashed the flak weapon. Dangerous scraps of metal flew at the Rebel flagship, taking out three of their shields. She then fired the four lasers and then the Halberd Beam. Two of the lasers slammed into the enemy missile launcher, and the beam followed with a swish, zapping the shields and piloting as well. The missile launcher was taken down and was now in flames.

The Rebel manning the missile launcher scrambled to extinguish the fire and bring the weapon back online. Meanwhile, some of the Rebels ran to the piloting room to restrain their mind-controlled pilot, while others worked on repairing the shields. They had quite the crew.

The Kestrel easily dodged the additional ion shots and lasers from the Rebel flagship. Meredith fired another full rotation, almost completely destroying the enemy shields and bringing the flagship down to six hull points. The Rebel flagship cloaked, attempting to stay online a while longer.

Meredith patiently waited for the ship to appear again and fired as soon as she could. The combination of flak, lasers, and Halberd Beam ripped off a large section of the Rebel flagship. It jumped away, leaving behind the sizzling debris.

 **Just as you finally gain the upper hand it finds a way to make an FTL jump. You've got to keep up the assault!**

 _Fuel 3, Missiles 1, Scrap 22_

"Damn, we did it!" Ryan shouted with glee.

"We didn't take a ssingle hit," Kirby commented.

"Thank goodness," Ferry sighed.

"Nice shooting, nice tactics, Commander," Felix said. "Now tell us all about phase two."

"In phase two, the Rebel flagship will be missing two systems: their triple ion weapon and their doors subsystem. However, they will have a drone control system, which comprises of two combat drones, defense drones, and boarding drones. We have no way to prevent the boarding drones from entering our ship, but, judging by our performance, I believe we can destroy the flagship before they can cause too much internal damage. Otherwise, our tactics will remain the same as before," Meredith explained.

"Let's do it then. Let's chase them down!"

"One more thing: the Rebel flagship will have a power surge ability, where it sends a large mass of combat drones at once to attack our ship. This will last for a few seconds, but we can endure it via cloaking."

"Sounds good. Let's go."

Felix JUMPED to the beacon where the Rebel flagship had retreated to.

* * *

 **You chase down the flagship and discover it is heavily damaged from the previous fight. Scans indicate that it has redirected considerable power to its drones. Get ready for a fight.**

As the fight started, the enemy boarding drone slowly sailed through space and crashed into the engine room, ripping a hole in the hull. Oxygen hissed out of the room, turning it redder and redder. The solid metal drone unfolded. It was mounted on treads with a thick torso, intimidating shoulder plates, and blasters on each arm. Chase gave it a death glare.

"It's in here! Engaging!" Chase shouted.

"Ensigns Ryan and Ferry, help Chase destroy the boarding drone!" Meredith commanded.

The two combat drones were casually peppering the Kestrel with lasers and beams. The shields were strong enough to repel both kinds of attacks. At least, until the Rebel flagship fired its three missiles. Felix prepared to cloak.

As if she knew what he was about to do, Meredith screamed, "Captain! Don't cloak! We have to tank this!"

"Wait, what?"

Before he could react, the three missiles exploded inside the Kestrel. The O2 system was taken out, and the weapons system took a point of damage.

"Why the fuck didn't we cloak?" Chase yelled, hearing the missiles explode in the rooms around him. Fortunately, Ryan and Ferry had made it into the engines room before the missiles hit. Now it was three crew members versus one boarding drone.

"We need to save it for the enemy power surge. I'll tell you when to cloak, Captain!" Meredith replied. She fired a rotation at the Rebel flagship, partly damaging their missiles, shields, and piloting. "Ugh. Not full laser damage."

Meanwhile, the three crewmembers had just taken out the boarding drone and repaired the huge hull breach.

"Good work, you two," Chase said.

"After you two help the Lieutenant fix up, Ensigns, go repair the O2," Felix ordered.

A ship-wide alarm suddenly blared. Large red text appeared in the background:

 **POWER SURGE**

"This is it! Get ready to cloak on my mark, Captain!"

After a few moments, a cloud of combat drones appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the Kestrel.

"Now!" Meredith yelled.

Felix saw the wave of combat drones, lasers charged, and slammed the cloak button. The spherical drones launched a torrent of lasers. They soared at the Kestrel, but none of them hit. Just as the cloak wore off, the herd of combat drones disappeared.

"That's what the power surge is? That's insane!" Ryan remarked.

"That's what we were saving the cloak for, Captain!" Meredith explained. "That could have done serious damage to us."

Meredith fired another combo at the enemy ship, this time doing significant damage to their shields. However, they fired another boarding drone into the Kestrel, this time breaking into their O2 room. It started to shoot at the system.

The oxygen in the Kestrel hadn't been completely refilled from the last hull breach, so many of the rooms were red. The O2 room itself was already totally drained of oxygen. Felix paused.

"If the boarding drone destroys the O2, then it'll be like hell trying to repair it. Ensigns Ferry and Ryan, get in there and stop that drone, now!" Felix commanded.

"Gehrk!"

When the two ensigns entered the room, they began to choke, and their health began to rapidly decrease from lack of oxygen. That, plus the boarding drone shooting at them, spelled the eventual death of both of them. However, Meredith saw this coming and dashed to engine room, next to the O2 room in which they were fighting for their lives.

"Ensign Kirby! Get over here so we can fight the boarding drone when it comes in here!" Meredith shouted. "Captain Felix, take over the weapons for me!"

The Rebel flagship kept firing its lasers, but the Kestrel was just barely able to dodge and block them.

 **POWER SURGE**

As the wave of combat drones magically reappeared again, Felix hit Cloak. A storm of lasers flew everywhere, but none of them could hit the Kestrel.

"Cloaking is a godsend, Commander!" Felix cried out with amazement, imagining the destruction that would have occurred without cloaking. He fired another rotation at the Rebel flagship, doing decent damage to their shields and piloting. The flak easily brought down the Rebel shields, allowing the Kestrel's other weapons to wreak havoc.

"The flak gun is the true hero!" she responded. "With our old Breach Bomb, we never would have stood a chance of penetrating their shields!"

Meanwhile, the enemy boarding drone had finished killing the asphyxiated Ferry and Ryan. They were already beginning the regeneration process in the cloning bay. The drone then broke into the engines room where Meredith, Chase, and Kirby were waiting with guns drawn.

"Bring it, bitch," Chase growled.

The three of them teamed up, holding their breath as the oxygen flooded out the newly-opened door and through the hull breach in the O2 room. After shooting numerous holes in the drone, they eventually destroyed the boarding drone and retreated to the weapons room where there was still air. All of them were moderately injured.

Felix fired all of the Kestrel's weapons, finishing off the Rebel flagship's shields and bringing them down to one hull point. He fired his lasers as soon as they were recharged and finished off the enemy's remaining hull points. The Rebel flagship lost the right part of its ship this time and left it behind as it jumped away.

 **Just as you finally gain the upper hand it finds a way to make an FTL jump. In its new state, it will have to get closer to the base to be a threat. You've bought some time, but you've got to keep up the assault!**

 _Missiles 1, Drone Part 1, Scrap 21_

Though the Rebel flagship was gone, danger remained.

"We need to fix the O2 system, pronto. Those of you with more than 50% health remaining, get in there and patch it up," Felix ordered.

Chase and Meredith braced themselves and then entered the cold, airless O2 room. They sprinted to the hull breach and screwed in the bolts as quickly as they could. Their health bars were rapidly disappearing.

"Ensign Kirby! Take Lieutenant Chase's place!" Felix shouted.

Just before Chase passed out, he stumbled out of the room and Kirby went in. They successfully fixed the hull breach and were now repairing the O2 system itself.

No one was at high enough health to take Meredith's place. Her health bar depleted and she passed out, succumbing to oxygen deprivation. Her body disappeared and her icon appeared above the cloning bay.

Kirby glanced at his fallen Commander and finished the repairs by himself. He managed to slide himself out of the O2 room. Chase, Ferry, and Kirby were all at extremely low health.

Meredith emerged from the cloning bay and said, "The three of you. Kill yourselves."

They happily obliged and after a few moments, the three of them appeared in the cloning bay at full health.

Felix scanned the SHIP screen and made the only purchase he could with the amount of scrap they had: O2. "No more of this suffocating business," he announced to his crew. "Everyone, return to your stations. Commander Meredith, explain phase three to us."

"In phase three, the Rebel flagship will no longer have its beam weapon or drone control. However, it will now have a mind control system and a Zoltan super-overshield. We can use our mind control system to counter theirs, however," Meredith explained. "Their power surge ability allows them to either totally recharge their super-overshield or fire a barrage of eight or so heavy lasers."

"Eight heavy lasers? Our one heavy laser already does so much damage!" Chase remarked.

"Exactly. That is why we save our cloak for it," Meredith replied. "Which means sitting through more missiles.

"Okay, that'll have to do. Everyone understand? Then let's go!"

Felix hit the JUMP button and they returned to the Federation base, where the final fight waited.

* * *

 **You're not certain how it's able to keep fighting with the amount of damage it has sustained. it looks like it's transferred power to the teleporter as well as… some kind of super weapon. Be prepared… this is it!**

The Rebel flagship was in a sorry state. The left and right sides of it were ripped off, and the back part of the ship was also heavily damaged. However, it was still surrounded by four layers of shield as well as a Zoltan super-overshield.

"Take them down!" Felix yelled.

As the fight started, an invader teleported onto the Kestrel and into the cloning bay. Felix vented the oxygen from the room. However, the triple missile launcher fired three missiles, hitting the Kestrel's doors subsystem and two empty room. A fire started in the doors room. Kirby yelped and scrambled for the fire extinguisher.

"Ensign Ferry! Help Ensign Kirby put that fire out!"

Meanwhile, Meredith fired all the Kestrel's weapons in order to wear away the Zoltan overshield. Two more boarders teleported onto the Kestrel in a desperate attempt to destroy the ship. They Rebels knew they were losing the fight. They entered the sensors room where Ryan was now stationed. Three more enemy missiles fired. One of them hit the doors subsystem and its residents, Ferry and Kirby. The other two hit the two empty rooms around the engine room, starting fires in each of them.

 **POWER SURGE**

The alarm blared. After a few moments, the Rebel flagship unleashed its power surge: a nova of heavy lasers. Felix's eyes widened at the sight. He immediately slammed Cloak and all of the lasers missed. Meredith fired a devastating counter-volley and took out the enemy's missile launcher. Their shields and piloting were heavily damaged as well.

Unfortunately, the three boarders had destroyed the Kestrel's sensors and were working on destroying the cloaking system and shields next. Ryan had valiantly protected the sensors, but was forced to back off when he was near death. Ferry and Kirby finished repairing the doors, so Felix was able to expose the engine room and the ones near it to the vacuum of space. Chase evacuated the room, letting space fight the fires.

"Everyone! Into the shields room! Let's fight them!" Meredith commanded.

Meredith, Ryan, Ferry, and Kirby fought the three boarders who had grouped up in the shields room, while the nearly-dead Ryan repaired the sensors. Every Kestrel crewmember in the fight was at low health, resulting in the untimely deaths of Chase and Kirby at the hands of the boarders. However, the Kestrel's crew barely managed to kill all of the boarders in the end.

Just then, Felix saw that all the Kestrel's weapons were fully charged. It was time.

"You're done!" he screamed.

He fired all of them at the Rebel flagship. Just like that, the flak tore through the shields, the lasers tore through the hull, and the Halberd Beam cut through the entire ship. They watched small explosions erupt throughout the Rebel flagship. One last explosion marked their fate as the enemy ship was torn apart. The Rebel flagship split into several large pieces, floating benignly in space. Felix and his crew had won.

"We did it! Yes!" Felix cried out.

"Wooo!" the crew cheered.

Two messages were projected in front of all of them from their wristbands:

* * *

Thanks to the valiant effort of:

 **The Kestrel**

and her successful crew:

 **Felix, Chase, Meredith, Ferry, Ryan and Kirby**

The Rebel flagship was destroyed, throwing their fleet into chaos and ensuring a Federation victory

* * *

 **VICTORY!**

Congratulations! You've defeated the Rebel Flagship and ensured the victory of the Federation!

 **SCORE: 4260**

* * *

"What happened? What's going on?" they heard Chase's voice echo in their minds.

"We won, man!" Ryan replied. He then remembered that Chase had fallen in the last moments of the battle. "Wait, didn't you die? Where are you?"

Felix looked at the crew list and noticed that both Chase and Kirby were at 0 health. They had been in the middle of the regeneration process in the cloning bay, and yet Chase was talking to them, good as new.

"You can still talk?" Felix asked.

"Yeah… even though I don't have a body at the moment. Weird."

"Kirby, you there too?" Felix called out.

"Yesssss, I am here. Same ssituation as Chassse."

"The fact that they are still talking is a good sign. They also appeared on the successful crew list, so I believe that they will be all right," Meredith pointed out.

Felix noticed the presence of five options at the bottom of the second message: STATS, RESTART, HANGAR, MAIN MENU, and QUIT. All of them except QUIT were greyed out. He relayed this information to his crew.

"I guess we're done here, then. I'm ready to go back to the real world!" Chase shouted.

"I'm just happy to be alive," Ferry said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"I fulfilled my promise," Meredith stated quietly. "Hopefully Margaret is watching over us right now."

"To be honest, I kind of enjoyed the thrill from this whole experience. I'm glad it's over though," Ryan admitted.

The crew exchanged their names as well as other forms of identification. They agreed to meet up on the same FTL forum afterwards.

"Good work, everyone. I'm proud of all of you. Now, let's go home," Felix said.

Felix hit QUIT and everything was finally over.


	21. Epilogue

Chase suddenly found himself back in his room, out of FTL and staring at his computer monitor. Part of an unidentified red planet was visible in space. Then, a sleek, very familiar spaceship flew by the planet and disappeared into distance. The Normandy! The screen faded to black.

"Hah, the Normandy. Still the best ship ever," Chase said, sitting back in his chair.

Remembering something, Chase tabbed out and began to type furiously.

* * *

Ryan suddenly saw Isaac from Dead Space on his computer monitor, staring at a holographic display. Isaac shut the display off and sat there in quiet contemplation. Darkness consumed the room for a brief moment. Then, he looked down and to his right and saw a ghastly woman crouching besides him. It instantly lunged at Isaac and screamed horrendously, covering the screen with static. Ryan shouted with surprise and fell backwards with his chair, hitting the carpet with a thud.

Ryan took a deep breath and started laughing.

"God, I love horror games."

He got up on his two legs and brushed himself off with his two hands.

"God, I love being human."

* * *

Ferry sat up in his bed with a start. His laptop was on the table beside him, playing the Star Trek video he had been watching before he was taken:

"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship _Enterprise_. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

All the while, a cheesy CGI ship was flying through space and past multiple unidentified planets. Ferry fell back into bed and pulled his sheets up to his face.

"Home sweet home!"

* * *

Kirby saw Fox's Arwing fly straight upwards out of the complex, narrowly avoiding the explosion following closely behind. Fox soared victoriously into space, joining his fellow pilots near the _Great Fox._

" **MISSION NO. 7**

 **MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"**

"Fox, you're OK!"

"Way to go, Fox!"

"That's our leader!"

Kirby relaxed on his home's couch and put his controller down.

"Did I just kill Andross or the Rebel flagship? Wait…" Kirby wiggled his tongue around. "Sweet. Succulent. Sack. Yes! No more darned hissing!"

* * *

Meredith sat there in her room. On her computer monitor, the FTL credits were rolling by. Her keyboard, mouse, and PC were in front of her. The game was only on the screen. She was just in her room. She breathed a sigh of relief. She went over to her real-life bed and lay down. Remembering what happened to Margaret almost brought her to tears.

"No. There's no way she's gone," she told herself.

No rest for the wicked. She went back to her computer and began typing furiously.

* * *

Felix was back in his room, forced to watch as his Kerbal Space Program ship careened through Kerbin's atmosphere, turning the ship's outside red from the high velocity. He stared and stared, not realizing that he was finally out of FTL and back in the real world, at his computer. His ship showed no signs of slowing down.

Suddenly realizing that his ship was going to be destroyed, Felix slammed the spacebar, deploying the parachutes of his ship. They caught the ship right before it was about to smash into the surface of the planet, allowing his ship land without a scratch. He took a moment to look around his room.

"Oh my god. It's over. It's finally over," he said to himself.

Felix shouted "Yes!" with passion.

"Yeah! Fuck yeah! Screw you, FTL! We win!"

He immediately tabbed out and began typing furiously. He intended to contact the other crew members of the Kestrel to confirm that their experience had really happened. He intended to find out the final fate of Margaret.

* * *

All six of them had gotten into contact with each other by the time a month had passed. They talked to each other in a group call over the internet. They discussed how insane what had happened was, as well as whether or not they should tell others about their experience. They concluded that it would be best to keep it to themselves, so as not to appear crazy or cause themselves unnecessary problems. They became better friends through the call and agreed to all meet up in-person someday.

One by one, Kirby, Ferry, and Ryan all eventually had to go. They left all left the call, leaving Felix, Chase, and Meredith together.

"Hey guys," Felix said after some particularly awkward silence.

"Hey," Meredith responded. "Have you two found any trace of Margaret?"

"No, I haven't…" Felix said dejectedly.

"I have," Chase stated.

"What? Really?"

"I looked her up. Margaret, 15 years old from Seward, Nebraska," Chase explained. "Once I found our Margaret, I managed to get her home number and I called it, asking for her. Her mom picked up and I told her I was a friend."

"Then what?" Meredith asked.

"Her mom sounded super depressed. She told me that Margaret had been in a coma for a month. When I heard that, I immediately started thinking, 'Hey, we just got out of that FTL game a month ago. What if those two things are related: her dying in FTL and her getting into a coma in real life?'"

"Captain Fe-, I mean, Felix. And Chase. There is something I must tell you two that might be relevant," Meredith said.

"What's up?" Felix asked.

"Last week, I started up FTL again out of curiosity."

Felix shuddered. He couldn't stand the idea of playing the game, let alone buying it.

"And?" Chase asked.

"And I found that all of the ships in the game were unlocked for me. The thing is, I wasn't the one who unlocked them."

"That's kind of strange. Is that a big deal, though?" Felix inquired. "Sounds like a good thing to me."

"No, the biggest deal happened when I selected the Mantis ship. Normally the names of the starting crews for the ships are completely random. However, no matter what I did, every time I selected layout A for the Mantis ship, the names of the four crew members were always the same. And guess what their names were."

"What, were they our names?" Chase responded, laughing.

"Yes, they were."

Chase choked a little bit upon hearing that.

"Wait, seriously?" he asked, coughing some more.

"Felix. Chase. Meredith," she stated. "Those were the names. Every single time."

"Huh. What about the fourth member?" Felix asked.

"The fourth member... was named Magmar."

Felix could practically feel Chase's jaw drop.

"Are you kidding me? As in, Margaret Magmar?" Chase asked.

"That is a distinct possibility," Meredith admitted.

"What does this even mean, Meredith? Is the game trying to tell us something?" Felix said.

"Well," Meredith replied. "With the existence of the real life Margaret confirmed… I believe the game is offering us three a second chance to bring Margaret back. The question is: are you two willing to play the game again?"

 **THE END**


End file.
